PARIS: Euronext wheat extended a fall on Tuesday to a three-month low, as competition from Black Sea supplies hung over the market, but pared losses by the close to hold chart support as traders digested a world crop report from the US government.
December wheat on the Paris-based Euronext exchange settled 1% down at 232.00 euros ($248.77) a metric ton. The contract earlier hit its lowest since June 5 at 230.00 euros, before regaining the 232-euros-level that has acted as a chart floor this month.
Euronext tracked movements in Chicago, where benchmark wheat futures slid to their lowest since December 2020, before steadying after the US Department of Agriculture crop report was issued near the end of the European session.
The USDA’s monthly outlook underscored Black Sea competition by raising wheat export projections for Russia and Ukraine, while also factoring in reduced harvest prospects in other major wheat exporters like Australia, leading the agency to cut its forecast of world wheat stocks in 2023/24.
European Union soft wheat exports so far in 2023/24 were running 27% below the year-earlier level at 5.84 million metric tons, weekly EU data showed.
Wheat export activity in France remained light, with a planned 30,000 ton shipment for Algeria the only large scheduled loading, port data compiled by LSEG showed.
“I think we are increasingly facing a demand problem for west EU wheat, despite the sanctions which make it difficult to secure vessels for Russian shipments for deferred periods,” one German trader said.
“The latest estimates from Russia on Monday were for Russian wheat exports at well over 1 million tons a week in September, with sales openly spoken of at levels below the Russian government’s unofficial minimum export price.”
France’s farm ministry reduced its monthly estimate of this year’s soft wheat harvest by 450,000 tons to 35.14 million, though that would be 4% above last year’s volume.
In rapeseed, November futures on Euronext ended 3.1% down at 430.50 euros a ton, near an earlier three-month low, after being pressured by weakness in Chicago soybeans as well as rain relief in western Europe after a hot spell.
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