CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures fell on Monday as a strong dollar made US exports more expensive for buyers with other currencies and large shipments from Russia underlined plentiful global supply. Corn and soybean futures also edged lower.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 1% at $5.50-1/4 a bushel by 0432 GMT, while CBOT soybeans fell 0.1% to $11.72-3/4 a bushel and corn slipped 0.2% to $4.34-1/2 a bushel.
All three contracts are near their lowest levels since 2020 amid ample supply. Speculators have reduced their net short position in CBOT wheat but are still heavily betting on lower prices.
“The wheat market is well supplied,” said Andrew Whitelaw at agricultural consultancy Episode 3, adding that he expected prices to remain around current levels until data emerges that changes the supply-demand outlook.
The US dollar held near Friday’s 5-1/2-month high, potentially dampening demand for US farm exports. Repeated Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure threaten to disrupt Black Sea exports, but Russian and Ukrainian grain has so far continued to flow, with Russia shipping record volumes.
Ukraine’s national railway has extended a ban on transportation in the direction of the large Black Sea port of Chornomorsk until April 17, the company said on Friday.
In France, the condition of soft wheat crops declined slightly for a second week to remain at its poorest in four years, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed. In corn markets, China could cancel more shipments from Europe to ease supply pressure on the domestic market, China Grain Net, an information provider affiliated with state stockpiler Sinograin, said.
Meanwhile, China’s soybean imports in March tumbled to 5.54 million metric tons, the lowest for the month in four years, data showed on Friday, as high prices and poor hog margins discouraged crushing for feed consumption.
China’s cereal and oilseed imports, however, are still expected to remain near record highs this year.
US soy processors crushed more soybeans in March than any month on record, although the daily pace slowed slightly from February, analysts said, ahead of Monday’s National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) report.
Ukrainian farmers have started this year’s corn sowing, seeding the first 120,000 hectares, as of April 11, agriculture ministry data showed on Friday.
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