HAMBURG/PARIS: European wheat drifted down, holding around a seven-week low as a US holiday deprived the European market of direction while talks between Russia and Turkey brought no breakthrough on the stalled Black Sea grain agreement.

December milling wheat on the Paris-based Euronext was down 0.3% at 234.25 euros ($252.57) a metric ton at 1501 GMT. It earlier eased to 234.00 euros, just below a previous seven-week low set late last week. US Chicago grain markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday that it would soon be possible to revive the grain deal that the United Nations says helped to ease a food crisis by getting Ukrainian grain to market.

But no quick breakthrough was reported. “There’s nothing new, it’s still a case of Russia saying ‘we’re okay to revive the corridor if sanctions are removed’,” a futures dealer said of the talks.

News of a large sale of Russian wheat to Egypt cooled export sentiment in western Europe after a sale of French wheat in an Egyptian tender last week. “Russian wheat is being offered well below the rumoured Russian government minimum price in private deals which are not reported like Egypt’s tenders,” one German trader said.