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Wheat futures drop to one-week low on ample Black Sea
supplies
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Improved weather in U.S. grain belt add pressure on prices
(Recasts with milestone, adds quote, updates prices)
By Naveen Thukral
SINGAPORE, March 22 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures
hit a one-week low on Wednesday, weighed down by extension of a
Black Sea export deal and improved weather in the U.S. winter
crop growing regions.
Soybeans eased while corn was largely unchanged.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade
(CBOT) lost 0.7% to $6.78-3/4 a bushel, as of 0355 GMT.
The market dropped to its lowest since March 13 at $6.74 a
bushel earlier in the session.
Soybeans fell 0.2% to $14.63-3/4 a bushel and corn was unmoved at $6.30 a bushel.
"The market is bit relieved after the extension of the Black
Sea export deal," said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness economist
at National Australia Bank. "The weather for wheat is more
accommodating in the United States."
The deal, allowing the safe export of grain from Ukrainian
and Russian Black Sea ports, was renewed on Saturday for 60 days
- half the intended period - after Moscow said any further
extension beyond May 18 would hinge on the removal of some
Western sanctions.
Russian wheat prices declined last week due to continued
high supplies from Russia and lower prices from the country's
major competitors, including Ukraine, analysts said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National
Agricultural Statistics Service in a weekly crop report on
Monday rated 19% of the winter wheat in top producer Kansas in
good to excellent condition, up from 17% the previous week.
However, grain markets are also monitoring harvest prospects
in other key exporting and consuming countries.
Ukraine's 2023 grain harvest is likely to fall to 44.3
million tonnes from 53.1 million in 2022 as less acreage is sown
due to Russia's invasion, a forecast by the Ukrainian
agriculture ministry showed on Monday.
In India, unseasonal rains and hailstorms have damaged
ripening, winter-planted crops including wheat in the country's
fertile northern, central and western plains, exposing thousands
of farmers to losses and raising the risk of further food price
inflation.
Torrential rains on Sunday and Monday lashed the states of
Punjab, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh,
which account for the bulk of wheat output in India, the world's
biggest producer after China, flattening crops and flooding
farms.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT corn, soybean,
wheat, soymeal and soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday, traders
said. (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
