PARIS: Euronext wheat eased on Tuesday in step with Chicago as market participants focused on favourable crop weather in the United States and continuing export competition from Black Sea supplies.

May milling wheat, the most active position on Paris-based Euronext, unofficially closed 0.9% down at 201.75 euros ($217.20) a metric ton.

Euronext, which had been closed on Friday and Monday for the Easter holiday, saw choppy trading on Tuesday as the market assessed US crop data and weather at the start of the crucial spring growing season. Chicago wheat was down 1.5% in US trading.

Wheat markets had climbed on Thursday on the back of a smaller-than-anticipated official projection of this year’s US corn area.

But favourable US weather forecasts and the highest rating for the US winter wheat crop in five years put the focus back on ample grain supply. That encouraged traders to look beyond soggy conditions in western Europe and dryness in the Black Sea zone. Large Russian wheat exports, which consultancy SovEcon estimates set a March record of 4.9 million tons last month, remained a curb on futures. News that a vessel loaded by TD RIF had left a Black Sea port also eased concerns over a dispute between the major export firm and Russian authorities.

Expectations that a large purchase of 795,000 tons of wheat by Saudi Arabia in a tender on Monday would be sourced from the Black Sea region also weighed on Euronext.