Wheat Declines As Ukraine’s Winter Grains Escape Cold Damage
Wheat futures declined, reversing an earlier gain, as crops in Ukraine escaped cold-weather damage, signaling the nation will be able to sustain exports.
March-delivery wheat lost 0.5 percent to $8.5475 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 4:22 p.m. Singapore time, reversing a 0.5 percent gain.
Ukraine’s winter grains escaped damage from snow last week because plants were protected, researcher UkrAgroConsult said. The company maintained its forecast for the 2011 harvest at 46.23 million metric tons of grain, including 21 million tons of wheat, 11.7 million tons of corn and 11 million tons of barley.
“When the market gets positive news about production in the Black Sea, then that obviously is going to gain market attention because they’re a very strong force in the export market,” Simon Clancy, manager for export brokerage at FCStone Australia Pty., said by phone today. “If their crop escapes any winter damage and is going to become another force in the export market in the next 12 months, then certainly that’s going to have an impact on the market.”
Ukraine is the world’s fifth-largest wheat exporter, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The four biggest shippers are the U.S., European Union, Canada and Australia, according to the U.S. agency, which does not break up the data on shipments from the EU.
March-delivery corn was little changed at $6.7475 a bushel in Chicago after advancing to $6.825 yesterday, the highest price since July 15, 2008.
Higher corn prices have encouraged some feed millers to use wheat from Australia instead, Mitch Morison, general manager commodities for Melbourne-based AWB Ltd., said in an e-mailed statement today.
High Values
“High corn values are also encouraging feed-grain customers to focus on Australian feed-wheat in preference,” Morison said. “Interest for feed in Europe, Korea and the Philippines is providing good support to prices and provides a very positive picture for growers,” he said.
Soybeans for March delivery climbed 0.3 percent to $14.2825 a bushel in Chicago, the first gain in four days.
The soybean harvest in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the nation’s biggest producer, is progressing at a slower pace this year, the state’s crop research institute said.
Farmers had completed 2.8 percent of the harvest as of Jan. 27, down from 9.9 percent at the same time last year, the institute said yesterday in an e-mailed report.
Brazil is the world’s largest soybean exporter after the U.S., according to the USDA.
To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
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