CANBERRA: Chicago soybean futures rose to their highest in six weeks on Thursday, cementing their gains after the U.S. government forecast a much smaller harvest than previously expected, but a lack of Chinese demand for U.S. beans still hangs over prices.
Corn also edged higher, having plunged more than 3% on Tuesday to contract lows after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) raised its outlook for the U.S. crop.
Wheat climbed from Wednesday’s five-year low but remained under pressure from low corn prices and plentiful global supply.
The most active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.1% at $10.45-1/2 a bushel at 0443 GMT after touching $10.49-1/4, the highest since July 3.
CBOT soybeans are now up around 6% this week, boosted first by U.S. President Donald Trump saying he hoped China, the biggest importer, would quadruple its purchases from the United States and then by Tuesday’s USDA report.
The USDA cut its estimate of the area planted to soybeans in the United States and raised its estimate of the corn area, surprising traders with the scale of the revisions.
However, the global soybean market remains well supplied after large harvests in South America, and China’s shunning of U.S. beans has kept Chicago prices low.
U.S. soybean exporters risk missing out on billions of dollars worth of sales to China as trade talks drag on.
If China doesn’t start buying, CBOT soybeans are likely to give back their gains, said Sean Hickey, an analyst at Bendigo Bank Agribusiness in Australia.
“Chinese demand is going to be the key direction setter,” he said.
In other crops, CBOT corn was up 0.1% at $3.97-3/4 a bushel and wheat rose 0.1% to $5.07-3/4 a bushel.
U.S. farmers are on track for a record-breaking corn crop, the USDA said. Brazil is wrapping up a bumper harvest, and Argentinian farmers plan to increase corn planting for the 2025/26 season, the Rosario grains exchange said.
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