SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat futures slid more than 3% to a one-week low on Monday, as ample supplies from the ongoing Northern Hemisphere harvest dragged down the market.
Corn and soybeans fell about 1.3% on expectations of bumper US production as trading resumed after the US Independence Day holiday on Friday.
“There is general harvest pressure in the wheat market,” said Ole Houe, head of advisory services at IKON Commodities in Sydney.
“US futures in particular for wheat had rallied to a level where US was uncompetitive.”
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) fell 3.2% to $5.46-1/4 a bushel, as of 0230 GMT, after hitting its lowest since July 1 earlier in the session.
EU wheat eases in US holiday lull
Corn lost 1.4% to 4.27-1/2 a bushel and soybeans shed 1.4% to $10.33-3/4 a bushel.
Wheat prices are being anchored by an accelerating US winter crop harvest and big crops in the Black Sea region and western Europe.
There was additional pressure on the wheat market as Russia, the world’s No. 1 supplier, decided to cut its export tax to zero.
It is the first time the tax has been removed since it was introduced in 2021 to protect the domestic market from price spikes and to discourage excessive exports.
Drought in the Rostov region, Russia’s top wheat and grain producing region in 2024, is not seen affecting the overall grain harvest in Russia, Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said on Friday, the state RIA news agency reported.
Participants in agricultural markets are closely watching the outcome of trade talks between the United States and its key partners, particularly China, by far the world’s largest soybean importer.
The United States is close to finalising several trade agreements in the coming days and will notify other countries of higher tariff rates by July 9, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, with the higher rates to take effect on August 1.
The European Union will cut Ukrainian wheat and sugar imports by up to 80% to address its farmers’ concerns, according to quotas announced on Friday, that are likely to drive Ukraine growers to sell more to markets in Asia and Africa.
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