PARIS/CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures rose on Monday as war risks to massive Black Sea exports hung over the market.
Corn and soybeans were also higher as investors adjusted positions in the run-up to closely followed US government crop forecasts on Wednesday.
The most-traded wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 1.5percent at USD6.49 a bushel at 1103 GMT. On Euronext, front-month wheat was up 0.6percent at €224.25 (USD259.14) a metric ton.
CBOT prices are well below highs of more than USD7 a bushel hit last month when Black Sea export disruptions began, but are still up nearly 30percent so far this year.
A weekend report by Bloomberg, which said Turkey had restricted commercial ship traffic entering the Black Sea following attacks on vessels, unsettled traders as it raised the risk of wider disruption to grain flows.
But subsequent comments by Turkish government officials indicating ships were passing normally through the Turkish straits eased concerns.
“Turkey is starting to put its foot down,” a European trader said, adding that a closure of the Turkish straits “would be the thing that would spark limit-up moves in Chicago and Euronext wheat.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that Ankara had conveyed to Russia and Ukraine they should declare a moratorium on their attacks in the Black Sea. Ukraine and Russia have increasingly targeted ships and ports in their 4-1/2-year-old conflict. However, they have continued to export grain at reduced levels and are harvesting large crops that could bolster already ample global supplies. “They do seem to find a way to get the grain out,” said Rod Baker, an analyst at Bendigo Bank Agribusiness in Perth.
Comments