PARIS: Euronext wheat fell steeply on Tuesday to give back most of its day-earlier gains as the market continued to react to news about potential exports from war-torn Ukraine.
September milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext was down 3.3% at 384.50 euros ($411.15) a tonne by 1554 GMT.
The front-month contract had climbed 5.1% on Monday as weekend news of Russian strikes on Kyiv and the port of Mykolaiv dampened expectations that a diplomatic deal could be reached to resume sea shipments of Ukrainian grain.
However, Turkey’s defence minister reiterated on Tuesday that his country was coordinating with Russia and Ukraine to agree a plan to re-start grain exports from Ukrainian ports, a day before Turkey’s foreign minister hosts his Russian counterpart for talks.
Russia’s defence minister, meanwhile, said the ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol, located on Ukraine’s Sea of Azov coastline seized by Moscow, were ready to resume grain shipments and that Russian forces had restored railway traffic across southern and eastern Ukraine.
“This shows that infrastructure can be re-established quite quickly,” one dealer said of Moscow’s comments.
“But then there’s the question of the origin of the grain and if it will be possible to trade it.” Some traders remained doubtful about any breakthrough regarding Ukraine’s main Black Sea ports while fighting continued and Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for disrupting global food supplies.
Wheat prices were also curbed by rain relief for US and European winter wheat.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday raised slightly its rating for drought-affected US winter wheat as farmers start harvesting the crop.
In France, traders said showers may boost yield prospects for cereals after a dry spring, although farming organisations warned of local damage to fields hit by hailstones during storms on Saturday.
Weekly European Union data showed EU soft wheat exports in 2021/22 had reached 25.34 million tonnes, slightly above the year-earlier level.
In monthly forecasts, the European Commission raised slightly its forecast of the next EU soft wheat harvest, while reducing its outlook for EU exports.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.