US wheat futures rose on Friday on support from concerns about crop production from countries in the Southern Hemisphere, traders said. KCBT hard red winter wheat led the gains, with the December contract rising 1 percent. Hard red winter wheat is the most popular variety on the export market and international production shortfalls would make US offerings more competitive to overseas buyers.
For the week, the most actively traded front-month CBOT wheat contract rose 0.7 percent, snapping a streak of four straight weekly declines. KCBT hard red winter wheat rose 0.5 percent, and MGEX spring wheat rose 0.3 percent, on the week. Rainy weather in Australia slowed wheat harvesting in the world's second largest exporter of the grain. Traders also noted some concerns about the quality of the wheat and the size of the crop in that country which lent support to wheat prices on Friday. Iraq's state grains board extended the deadline in its tender for at least 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Monday from Friday. Japan's Ministry of Agriculture bought 133,480 tonnes of food quality wheat from the United States, Canada and Australia in a regular tender.