SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat prices bounced back on Monday, with the market climbing more than 1% as worries over production declines in several exporting countries, including top supplier Russia, supported prices.
Soybeans ticked lower, although crop losses in Brazil following rains and heavy flooding continued to underpin the market, while corn firmed.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) added 1.2% to 6.59-1/4 a bushel, as of 0334 GMT, having lost 1.8% on Friday. Soybeans gave up 0.2% at $12.25-3/4 a bushel and corn rose 0.3% to $4.54 a bushel.
Adverse weather in Russia and European countries in supporting wheat prices. Russia’s wheat exports in the 2024/25 season could amount to 46.9 million metric tons, according to a consensus forecast by the Russian Union of Grain Exporters. The agriculture ministry estimated wheat exports for the 2022/23 season at 47 million tons.
The condition of French soft wheat crops steadied at a four-year low last week while maize planting accelerated, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed on Friday, after a warm spell helped rain-soaked fields dry out. For soft wheat, 64% of the crop was estimated to be in good or excellent condition by May 13, unchanged from the previous week but down from 93% a year earlier, FranceAgriMer said in a cereal crop report.
Germany’s winter wheat area for the 2024 harvest has been reduced by 8.3% year-on-year to about 2.6 million hectares, the country’s national statistics agency estimated on Friday.
However, improved crop prospects in the United States could limit gains in CBOT futures.
The Wheat Quality Council’s annual crop tour concluded on Thursday and estimated Kansas wheat’s yield potential at 46.5 bushels per acre (bpa) after scouting 449 fields over three days. The figure was the highest since 2021 and above the five-year tour average of 42.4 bpa from 2018-2023.
Last week, soybeans rose as crop harvesting in Brazil’s flood-devastated Rio Grande do Sul advanced slowly in the last week after relentless rains and stubbornly high waters failed to subside. Excessive rains and heavy flooding have continued to constrain cargo movement at Rio Grande port, which is the fourth largest in the country for soybean exports and third largest for fertilizer imports. Large speculators trimmed their net short position in CBOT corn futures in the week ended May 14, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and increased their net short position in soybeans.
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