European Union wheat fell on Friday to a one-week low, under pressure from US futures at contract lows, but an export-boosting slide in the euro helped prices hold a support floor. May milling wheat, the benchmark on Euronext's established No 2 wheat contract, settled 0.25 euro or 0.1 percent lower at 184.75 euros a tonne. It earlier fell to 184.00 euros to touch its lowest since February 26 for the second straight session, but a technical support zone between 184 and 185 euros held again.
Euronext's new No 3 premium wheat futures did not trade on Friday, confirming a drop-off in activity since what was seen as a promising debut session on Monday. Chicago wheat futures set new contract lows on Friday, sapped by a rally in the dollar to 11-1/2 year highs. "Chicago sent a clear bearish signal to other markets by breaking below $5," Alexis Poullain of consultancy Agritel said. "But in Europe we don't need to fall as much because while US wheat has lacked competitiveness, our wheat is already competitive for export."
Weekly data on Thursday showed the European Union granted export licences for 505,000 tonnes of soft wheat, down sharply on the previous week but keeping the volume so far in 2014/15 ahead of last season's record pace. Cash brokers in France also reported unusually strong export demand for French maize (corn) outside the EU, helped by euro weakness, with talk that large cargoes could be shipped to Asia. "These sales (to Asia) would be on top of deals recently done for smaller volumes to Turkey, Algeria and soon to Morocco," one broker said.
March delivery 11.5 percent protein export wheat also fell 20 zlotys to 740 to 750 zlotys a tonne, traders said. "The current export contracts are being executed from previous purchases and partly from the stocks of exporters," one Polish trader said. "Preliminary estimates put Poland's wheat exports in February at around 400,000 tonnes while 300,000 tonnes is expected to be exported in March."