China sells about 3.9mn T of wheat from reserves

BEIJING: China sold 3,939,732 tonnes of wheat, or 99.74% of the total offer, at an auction of state reserves last week, the National Grain Trade Center said in a statement on Monday.

The average selling price was 2,504 yuan ($386.27) per tonne, up 7% from just two weeks ago, according to data from the trade centre.

"It (the auction) was crazy, most of the wheat was bought by traders who were auctioning for the feed makers," said a trader who purchases wheat for milling plants.

"We could only watch," as the feed people were willing to pay whatever price to get the wheat, said the trader, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Sales of wheat from state reserve at weekly auctions have jumped significantly in the past months, as feed producers stocked up on the grain to use as an alternative to corn, amid soaring prices of the latter.

China's corn futures traded on Dalian Commodity Exchange continued to rise on Monday after hitting record levels last week.

The table below shows the volume of wheat sold at weekly auctions from China's state reserves since June 22 last year.