Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat futures in Chicago rose to a record, extending the rally for a sixth day, after Ukraine said it will restrict grain exports and as importers buy more of the commodity, boosting demand for U.S. supplies.

Ukraine plans to limit shipments from Nov. 1 to March 31 to cap domestic prices. Pakistan and Jordan each plan to buy 100,000 metric tons. Morocco plans to buy 133,450 tons of soft milling wheat from any origin at a tender Sept. 28. The U.S. has projected global inventories will fall to the lowest in 26 years.

``The supply situation is critical,'' said Louise Gartner, owner of Spectrum Commodities in Beavercreek, Ohio. ``There are few things you can substitute for wheat. You can always use other grains for livestock feed, but not as a food grain.''

Wheat for December delivery rose as much as 16.50 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $9.3375 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and traded at $9.3175 in after-hours electronic trading at 8:23 a.m. Singapore time. The contract gained 3.4 percent yesterday. Futures have more than doubled in the past 12 months.

General Mills Inc., the second-largest cereal-maker in the U.S., is increasing prices because of higher expenses, including rising costs for wheat.

``There's no doubt it's a challenging environment for us,'' Kendall Powell, named chief executive officer on Sept. 24, said in an interview last week. ``We've seen commodity inflation for the last four or five years. We're seeing it because of global demand for these commodities.''

Grains represent about 10 percent of the cost of goods at Minneapolis-based General Mills, which ranks behind Kellogg Co. in cereal sales.

U.S. Wheat Sales

Advance sales of U.S. wheat have more than doubled since the marketing year began June 1 after adverse weather limited global stockpiles. Ukraine was the world's seventh-biggest exporter last year.

Australia, expected by the USDA to be the second-biggest exporter of wheat by May 31, will produce 15.5 million tons of the grain, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said last week. The bureau in June predicted farmers would harvest 22.5 million tons.

``We needed a good crop from Australia, not just to maintain low prices, but to feed people,'' Gartner said.

Drought also hurt plants in Canada, which is expected by the USDA to export 14 million tons of the grain and tie with Australia as the world's second-biggest exporter. Dry weather damaged plants in the U.S., the largest shipper.

U.S. Planting

U.S. winter wheat planting is behind schedule in the U.S. southern Great Plains, including Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Growers sowed 27 percent of the winter-wheat crop as of Sept. 23, compared with 32 percent a year earlier and a five- year average of 35 percent, the USDA said this week. Hard red- winter varieties are grown mostly in the southern Plains from Nebraska to Texas and the soft red-winter variety is grown mostly in the eastern Midwest from Arkansas to Ohio.

Most of the U.S. winter crop is planted in October. Some farmers in Oklahoma have delayed planting while they wait for fields to dry, said Mark Hodges, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission. In western parts of the state, some fields need rain, he said.

Wheat was the fourth-biggest U.S. crop in 2006, valued at $7.7 billion, behind corn, soybeans and hay, according to government data.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jae Hur in Singapore at jhur1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 26, 2007 20:27 EDT