* The front-month Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat contract posted a 19.5 percent gain for the year, making it the best performer in the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index .

* But CBOT wheat ended the year on a three-month losing streak, and lost 7.7 percent in December. The December drop was the biggest monthly decline for wheat since falling 18.2 percent in September 2011.

* The benchmark contract notched a 13.8 percent loss in the last three months of the year, its worst quarterly performance since dropping 23.4 percent in the second quarter of 2011.

* Volumes were light on Monday, with only about 42,200 CBOT wheat contracts changing hands.

* The US Agriculture Department said on Monday morning weekly export inspections of wheat were 7.763 million bushels, down from 15.247 million a week ago and below analysts' forecasts for 12 million to 15 million.

* Iraq tendered to buy 50,000 tonnes of wheat from the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Germany.

Center>Copyright Reuters, 2012