Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures hit their highest price in nearly nine years on Thursday and European wheat futures climbed to a 14-year peak, boosted by concern that exportable global supplies could tighten further, analysts said.
Soybeans followed wheat higher, while corn futures ended narrowly mixed after a choppy session as traders weighed firm U.S. cash markets against a stronger dollar and uncertain export demand from China.
Chicago Board of Trade December wheat settled up 9-1/2 cents at $8.12-1/2 a bushel after reaching $8.24-3/4, the highest price in a continuous chart of the most-active wheat contract since December 2012 (all figures US$ except where noted).
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CBOT January soybeans finished 4-3/4 cents higher at $12.21-1/2 a bushel, while December corn settled up 1/4 cent at $5.69-1/2 a bushel.
Wheat set the tone as March milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext reached 296 euros (C$427) per tonne, the highest price on a chart of the second-month contract since September 2007, and front-month December reached 300.50 euros.
“The EU is getting to a spot where it can’t export a lot of new wheat. So Paris has pushed to a new record high,” said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co in Chicago.
Support also stemmed from the prospect that Russia, the world’s top wheat supplier, could curb exports. The country may change the way it calculates grain export taxes if prices rise further, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said. Russia also plans to set export quotas for the first half of 2022.
Brazil cleared imports of flour from Argentina made with genetically modified wheat, although shipments of the new variety are unlikely anytime soon given uncertainty about broader global acceptance and opposition from a powerful wheat millers’ lobby.
“It could mean a surge in demand for U.S. wheat if they reject buying it, if they fear consumer backlash,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX. “Ultimately it comes down to the consumer. What is the consumer willing to accept?”
Soybean traders were still digesting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s surprise cut this week to its estimate of the U.S. soybean yield. But rallies were capped by rising expectations of a massive Brazilian soy harvest.
Brazilian government supply agency Conab raised its forecast of the country’s 2021-22 soybean harvest to 142 million tonnes, from 140.8 million previously. Trade group Abiove projected Brazil’s soybean crop at a record 144.1 million tonnes and said output could be higher, depending on weather.
— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen; additional reporting by Nigel Hunt in London and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.
