Soft red winter wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade soared 4 percent in value by midday on Thursday, buoyed by a huge weekly US export sales figure and strength in European wheat markets, traders said.
The US Department of Agriculture reported export sales of US wheat for last week at close to 2.1 million tonnes, well above trade estimates for 950,000 to 1.1 million - and the largest weekly total since 1996.
As of 11:50 am CDT (1650 GMT), CBOT September wheat was up 27 cents at $6.61 per bushel, after reaching $6.62-1/2, a contract top and the highest spot wheat price in 11 years. Back months were up 3 to 20-1/2 cents. Commodity funds bought 2,500 contracts by midday, traders said.
There was fresh business as well, with exporters reporting the sale of 100,000 tonnes of US hard red winter wheat to Algeria. Also, South Korean millers were seeking a total of 42,200 tonnes of US wheat, and Taiwan set a tender for Friday to buy 103,220 tonnes of US wheat.
Concerns about the European crop remained supportive. In Paris, French milling wheat futures soared to historic highs as anxiety over global and French supplies prompted speculative buying.
French agency ONIGC cut its estimate of the French soft wheat crop to less than 34 million tonnes, from its previous forecast of 35 million. In other wheat news, the London-based International Grains Council pegged 2007/08 world wheat production at 614 million tonnes, unchanged from its June estimate and above last year's 591 million.