Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures fell nearly 3 percent on Wednesday on technical selling and sluggish export demand for US supplies, coupled with improving prospects for a sizable global harvest later this year. CBOT May soft red winter wheat settled down 12-3/4 cents at $4.50 per bushel but held above a contract low set last week at $4.47-1/4.
K.C. May hard red winter wheat ended down 12-3/4 cents at $4.38-1/2 a bushel and MGEX May spring wheat fell 2-1/2 cents to $5.53. Ukraine expects a good grain harvest this year thanks to an early spring and favorable weather, the country's agriculture ministry said.
The ministry estimated the area sown to winter grains in Ukraine at 7.6 million hectares (18.8 million acres), one of the largest in recent years, including 6.5 million hectares in winter wheat.