CANBERRA: Chicago soybean futures rose on Wednesday but remained near their lowest levels since November 2020, as cheap South American supply made US beans less competitive in export markets and speculators bet on further price declines.
Corn futures also inched higher but plentiful supply held prices near their lowest since 2020, while wheat fell as bumper Russian production continued to loom over the market.
The most active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.3% at $11.44 a bushel by 0344 GMT after dropping as low as $11.34 on Monday.
Beans are pouring into the market as the harvest progresses in top producer and exporter Brazil, whose crop has not been as badly hit by adverse weather as many analysts feared a few months ago.
“The trend for soybeans is down and it will keep going down,” said Rabobank analyst Vitor Pistoia, adding that his bank forecast prices falling to $11 by the end of the year. Prices in Brazil are so low that the United States is importing Brazilian soybeans.
The market largely shrugged off confirmation by the US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday that US exporters sold 123,000 metric tons of soybeans to unknown destinations.
CBOT corn was up 0.1% at $4.24 a bushel, having slid to $4.04 last week.
Soybeans rise for 2nd session; ample supplies curb gains
Wheat dipped 0.3% to $5.82-1/4 a bushel and was not far from September’s three-year low of $5.40.
Speculative investors have amassed large net short positions in all three crops, pushing prices lower but leaving them vulnerable to bouts of short-covering. Commodity funds were net sellers of Chicago soybeans on Tuesday but net buyers of wheat and corn, traders said.
CBOT prices have been helped by a decline in the dollar from a three-month high in mid-March.
A weaker dollar makes US farm products more affordable for foreign buyers.
Chinese importers are believed to have purchased a substantial volume of animal feed corn from Ukraine in the past week, European traders said.
Soft wheat exports from the European Union since the start of the 2023/24 season in July reached 20.5 million metric tons by Feb. 22, down from 21.1 million in the same period a year earlier, EU data showed.
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