The European Union increased its wheat export subsidy to a maximum of 7.50 euros from 6.00 euros a tonne on Thursday and raised the volume covered to more than 280,000 tonnes from below 60,000 tonnes last week.
The EU's grain panel also opened a tender to transfer 500,000 tonnes of rye held in German intervention stores to Spain and re-opened previous tenders for wheat, maize and barley totalling 500,000 tonnes, French grains office ONIC said. Some 300,000 tonnes from the re-opened wheat and maize tenders would come from Hungary, ONIC added.
The previous transfer tenders, which were not popular with traders, expired last week. They were designed to help Spain with its shortage of grain after the worst drought on record.
Traders in Spain have said that part of the problem with the former intervention auction was due to the specific ports permitted in the original regulation. ONIC did not say if these had been amended.
Traders has also expected the EU to open tenders for French intervention wheat, and possibly barley, but ONIC gave no indication of any such moves by the grain panel this week.
The higher 7.50 euro refund level will cheer exporters, who say they have been priced out of key traditional markets in north Africa by cheaper Russian wheat and need higher subsidies.
Exporters have been asking for EU refunds of up to 15 euros.
At the close, Paris-traded November futures were 0.25 euros firmer at 108.25 euros a tonne.
Egypt, one of the world's biggest buyers on the international market, cancelled a tender last week, saying offers were not cheap enough. Algeria, too, is believed to have rejected bids in a recent wheat tender.