European wheat futures in Paris fell on Tuesday, following Chicago prices down, as both markets retreated from multi-month highs while Paris was also pressured by the success of Russian wheat in Egypt's latest purchase tender.
March milling wheat, the most active contract on the Paris-based Euronext exchange, was down 1.0 euro, or 0.5%, at 184.00 euros ($202.80) a tonne at 1651 GMT, moving further away from Monday's 4-1/2 month high of 187.00 euros.
Egypt's purchase of 295,000 tonnes of all-Russian origin wheat in a tender on Tuesday, suggesting Russian supplies remained competitive against French wheat despite a recent run-up in prices.
"Matif (Euronext) was 5-6 euros higher compared with the time of the previous Egyptian tender whereas GASC has also paid 3 dollars more this time," a futures broker said.
Traders were also awaiting a tender to be held on Wednesday by Algeria to see how much competition French wheat would face in its main export market from just-harvested Argentine supplies.
Front-month December futures on Euronext also eased, trading down 0.2% at 185.75 euros.
The spot futures had outperformed other delivery months in recent sessions as participants covered positions before a Tuesday deadline to submit storage certificates before next week's expiry of the contract.
In Germany, cash premiums in Hamburg remained over Paris as a busy programme of export shipments supported. Export demand for German wheat rose in recent weeks after an increase in prices offered by rival Black Sea suppliers.
Standard bread wheat with 12% protein for January delivery in Hamburg was offered for sale unchanged at 2.5 euros over the Paris March contract. Buyers were offering around 1.5 euro over Paris.
"Export demand is still good for German wheat from traditional customers like Africa and Saudi Arabia," one German trader said. "But Russia has regained some competitiveness as the purchase tender from Egypt showed today."
"The rise in Paris futures to four-month highs last week has weakened the attraction of EU wheat a little in export markets but I am still hopeful of more export sales from Germany in coming weeks."
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