PARIS: Euronext wheat futures fell for a fifth straight session on Monday as favourable harvest prospects and competitive prices in Russia continued to overshadow weather damage to crops in western Europe, traders and analysts said.
September wheat on Paris-based Euronext was down 0.4% at 216.50 euros ($234.23) a metric ton by 1538 GMT, after touching its lowest since July 19 at 215.00 euros. A rebound in Chicago wheat from a four-year low helped Paris prices pare earlier losses.
After concern about the rain-hit crop in France pushed Euronext to a two-week high last Monday, the market has been pressured by more signs of good Russian harvest volumes and export competition from Russian and other Black Sea wheat.
“The Russian wheat crop is getting bigger whilst French one is suffering,” commodity data specialist CM Navigator said in a note. Slack early-season European Union wheat exports have traders worried that the EU is falling too far behind in exports even if its harvest is set to be modest. A wheat import tender called by Tunisia for Tuesday will give another indication of export competition.
Weekend rain, including downpours that marked the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, again hampered harvesting in France and Germany. Traders are now watching to see if hot weather this week will accelerate field work and give a clearer picture of the harvest in the EU’s two biggest wheat producing countries.
In France, cereal barges passed through Paris in the early hours of Saturday as part of special arrangements to facilitate harvest-time logistics during the Olympics, France’s river transport federation said.
The river Seine is an important route for cereals to reach France’s main grain export terminal at Rouen, though traders say the small expected harvest and slack demand should reduce the impact of Olympics-related navigation restrictions. In oilseeds, November rapeseed on Euronext was down 0.5% at 478.00 euros per ton.
A sharp cut to Strategie Grains’ monthly forecast of the EU rapeseed crop was seen as within market expectations and offset by falling Chicago soybean prices linked in turn to favourable US growing conditions.
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