CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures inched higher on Tuesday, climbing for a fifth consecutive day, as poor production in Europe triggered a price rebound from nearly four-year lows.

Paris wheat futures up, US holiday limits gains

Soybeans and corn futures dipped, with attention turning to ample supply after signs of improving demand drove price gains last week.

Fundamentals

• The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.2% at $5.52-3/4 a bushel, as of 0058 GMT, after climbing 4.5% last week.

• CBOT corn edged 0.1% lower to $4.00-1/2 a bushel and soybeans slipped 0.1% to $9.98-3/4 a bushel.

• All three contracts are close to their lowest levels since 2020.

• Crop setbacks in the European Union, including the worst French wheat harvest since the 1980s, have helped underpin wheat prices, but ample global supply and competition from cheap Black Sea grain have kept a lid on the market.

• The European Commission last week cut its estimate for usable EU common wheat production in 2024/25 to 116.1 million metric tons from 120.8 million tons, and trimmed its forecast for EU soft wheat exports to 26 million tons from 32 million tons.

• Russian agricultural consultancy Sovecon also lowered its forecast for Russia’s 2024 wheat crop to 82.5 million metric tons from 83.3 million.

• However, the Russian crop is still large by historical standards, and Canada, the United States and Australia, which on Tuesday raised its wheat production estimate by 2.7 million tons, expect good harvests.

• In other crops, export sales of US corn and soybean for the week ended Aug. 22 came in above analyst expectations.

• The Argentine corn planting area in the 2024/25 season is estimated to drop 17.1% year-on-year due to fears of leafhopper pest proliferation and possible droughts, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange (BdeC) said, although rainfall in recent days should boost crops that are planted.