Benchmark December milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext, was down 1pc by 1537 GMT to 176.50 euros a tonne, a price last seen on June 12.

The most traded wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 1.8pc at $5.02-3/4 a bushel, after earlier touching a new three-week low of $5.01-1/4.

"Euronext keeps on following Chicago," one trader said.

Egypt's thin purchase of just 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat at its latest international purchasing tender came as a surprise but could be explained by a large gap in price with Russian offers, traders said.

The Russian wheat crop this year has good protein levels so that exporters are not willing to cut prices.

Algeria's state grains agency OAIC has issued a tender to purchase milling wheat for shipment in August.

A second ship is arriving in the port of La Pallice to load wheat for the North African country, by far France's biggest wheat export market.

Brokers stressed it was early as the harvest is only just kicking off in France and uncertainty remained on the crop's final protein level.

Winter barley harvest progressing quickly, showing hefty yields. Crops were already reap when the hot spell hit.