Wheat rises on Black Sea disruptions; market eyes USDA report

SINGAPORE: Chicago wheat futures rose on Wednesday, underpinned by disruptions to supplies from the Black Sea region amid attacks by Ukraine and Russia on each other’s shipping routes.

Soybeans and corn ticked higher, with moves in both commodities muted ahead of a US government supply-demand report due later in the day.

“Wheat supply is becoming an issue for buyers as it is peak export season for Russia and Ukraine,” said one trader in Singapore.

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 0.6% to $6.34 a bushel by 0315 GMT.

Soybeans added 0.4% to $11.73-1/4 a bushel and corn gained 0.2% to $4.61-1/2 a bushel.

Russia and Ukraine have increasingly targeted ships and supply routes, raising fears over world supplies.

Russian wheat exports in August could fall to their lowest in nearly a decade, agricultural analysts said on Tuesday, as the world’s top wheat exporter contends with low prices and security risks on vital Black Sea shipping routes.

Grain markets are turning their attention to the US Department of Agriculture’s August supply-and-demand report, which will include highly anticipated revisions to the agency’s outlook for this year’s US corn and soybean harvests.

Ahead of the report, analysts surveyed by Reuters, on average, expected the agency to lower its estimate of the US 2026 corn yield to 182.4 bushels per acre, from 183.0 bushels.

Analysts, on average, also expect the USDA to lower its forecasts of US 2025-26 and 2026-27 soybean ending stocks.