SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat rose 1% on Wednesday, with the market climbing to its highest in nearly two weeks on renewed concerns over Ukrainian supplies after Russian attacks on grain infrastructure.
Soybeans slid for the first time in three sessions, although worries over Brazilian dryness kept a floor under the market.
Corn edged higher.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) climbed 1% to $5.88-1/2 a bushel, as of 0253 GMT, after rising to its highest since Nov. 9 at $5.88-3/4 a bushel earlier.
Soybeans fell 0.1% to $13.76-1/2 a bushel and corn gained 0.2% to $4.70-3/4 a bushel.
Russian forces hit port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa on Tuesday evening, the regional governor said.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, stepped up its attacks on port infrastructure on the Danube River and the Black Sea after it withdrew in July from a UN-brokered deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain.
The United Nations World Food Programme warned on Tuesday that Ukraine’s wheat production may be unable to meet domestic and export demand in the years to come if Black Sea export routes remain blocked and attacks on food infrastructure continue.
In the soybean market, focus is on Brazil, where dry weather has delayed planting.
Rain during the last few days in Brazil, the top global soybean exporter, was not nearly enough to abate market worries regarding the potential that the long-term, brutally hot weather will reduce output.
Brazil’s 2023/24 soybean planting had reached 68% of the expected area as of Thursday, the slowest progress for the period since 2019/20, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said.
The soybean market was still reacting to Sunday’s presidential election in Argentina, the world’s top soymeal and soyoil exporter.
Argentine grains traders said on Tuesday that the country’s farmers were holding back soy sales and would likely keep doing so ahead of the mid-December inauguration of President-elect Javier Milei, who has pledged to cut taxes and weaken the peso.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT wheat, soybean, soyoil and corn futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said. Funds were net sellers of soymeal futures, traders said.
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