European benchmark wheat futures in Paris touched contract lows on Wednesday on prospects for large supplies coupled with disappointment that no French wheat was offered in a major purchase tender from Egypt. May milling wheat, the benchmark on Paris-based Euronext, ended down 1.0 euro or 0.6 percent at 152.25 euros a tonne after touching a new contract low of 151.0 euros in earlier Wednesday trade.
Traders said the mood was depressed by expectations that large inventories would meet a good crop this summer as a warm winter created favourable harvest weather in much of the EU. Traders were also disappointed no French wheat was offered in a tender from Egypt's state grains buyer GASC on Wednesday, which purchased 180,000 tonnes of Romanian and Ukrainian wheat.
But EU prices moved away from their lows, helped by an export-boosting weakness in the euro against the dollar and a firmer trend in Chicago wheat in early Wednesday trade. German cash premiums in Hamburg were unchanged, meaning falling outright prices as Paris dropped.
Standard wheat with 12 percent protein content for March delivery was offered for sale at an unchanged 1 euro under the Paris May contract. Buyers were seeking 2.50 euros under Paris. "Overall favourable harvest weather continues in Germany and with only a few weeks of winter left, there is an increasing possibility wheat will come through the winter with hardly any frost damage," one German trader said. "Export loadings in German ports are larger than in past months but are down on recent year which means there are likely to be large unsold stocks as the new crop arrives this summer."
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