PARIS: European wheat prices ended Friday little changed after hitting or equalling new one-month highs every day this week due to a rally in Chicago, concern over global supplies and technical buying, traders said.
Benchmark December milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext was down 0.1% to 186.50 euros a tonne at 1541 GMT after matching a five-week high of 187.00 euros hit in the previous session. It has gained 10 euros in about two weeks.
French wheat prices have recently been supported by good export demand to China, but the jury is out on whether that will last much longer since France harvested a small crop and is lacking competitiveness.
"There could be up to one million tonnes of French wheat shipped to China by the end of September but beyond that orders are thinner. There could be some switching to US and Canadian wheat," one broker said.
Germany's 2020 wheat crop of all types is expected to fall 5.1% on the year to 21.88 million tonnes, the German agriculture ministry estimated on Friday.
"It is a reasonable harvest although a tick down on the year and Germany has not suffered the very serious harvest reductions seen in France and Britain," one German trader said.
"Germany's export surplus will be cut a little but currently the Baltic States, Poland and the Black Sea exporters are so cheap that Germany is likely to be in the second row in export sales until early 2021 when our rivals start selling out."
"But Germany does not need export sales to clear out the new crop as domestic demand from flour mills is strong."
The main near-term export hopes include Algeria, as France's export supplies have been cut.
British flour mills have been making large purchases of German wheat in the past weeks after a collapse in the United Kingdom's harvest this year, traders said.
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