Chicago wheat rose for a second straight session on Wednesday to its highest in more than a week, with prices underpinned by reduced production in Europe and the Black Sea region.
Soybeans gained more ground as lower-than-expected U.S. crop ratings supported prices.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was up 1.0 percent at $5.02-3/4 a bushel by 0350 GMT, near the session high of $5.05 a bushel, the highest since July 10. Wheat closed 1.9 percent higher on Tuesday.
Soybeans added 0.6 percent to $8.60 a bushel, having firmed 1.1 percent on Tuesday, and corn was up 0.5 percent at $3.61-1/2 a bushel, after climbing 1.3 percent in the previous session.
“Heatwave in Europe is making prices to move higher. Europe does not have a big crop this year to plug the gap in world supplies resulting from lower production in Russia,” said one India-based agricultural commodities analyst.
“This is likely to boost U.S. exports which is supportive for CBOT prices.”
France, Germany, Poland and Ukraine are among the European countries where dry weather is threatening wheat harvests.
Consultancy Strategie Grains has made a heavy reduction to its forecast for this year’s soft wheat harvest in the European Union, factoring in weather-hit yields in the bloc’s top two producers France and Germany.
Russia, the world’s biggest exporter, is on track for lower production following a record crop last year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday that 69 percent of the soybean crop and 72 percent of corn were in good to excellent condition. That was down from 71 percent and 75 percent a week earlier, respectively.
Still, U.S. soybean conditions are the sixth highest since 1989, despite the drop in ratings, according to data and analytics firm Radiant Solutions. Corn conditions tie for the eleventh highest, the company said.
China’s summer grain output fell 2.2 percent to 138.72 million tonnes in 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement released on Wednesday.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, wheat, soybeans and soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday, and net sellers of soymeal, traders said.
Source: Agriculture.com
