Wheat eases after rally, Black Sea supplies in focus

Chicago wheat slid on Wednesday after a three-session rally, although losses were limited by concerns over a deal that allows Ukraine to ship grains from its Black Sea ports despite the war with Russia.

Soybeans and corn lost ground.

“The market is still oversold technically and there is still plenty of uncertainty on the availability of Ukraine grain in the world market,” commodities research firm Hightower said in a note.

“Some eastern European countries are banning imports from Ukraine, and Russia continues to appear to be unwilling to extend the current export agreement from the Black Sea.”

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) dipped 0.3% to $7.07-1/2 a bushel, as of 0437 GMT. Soybeans gave up 0.2% to $14.88 a bushel and corn fell 0.2% to $6.43-3/4 a bushel.

Poland agreed on Tuesday to lift a ban on the transit of Ukrainian grain and food products, but Ukraine said the wartime deal allowing it to safely ship grains from Black Sea ports was still under threat.

Failure to resume exports into eastern European countries or secure an extension of the Black Sea grain deal would trap large amounts of grain in Ukraine, hitting global supplies.

The SovEcon agricultural consultancy on Tuesday forecast Russia’s 2023 wheat crop at 86.8 million tonnes, up from 85.3 million tonnes in its forecast last month.

SovEcon raised its 2022/23 Russian wheat export forecast by 0.4 million tonnes to 44.5 million tonnes.

The U.S. Midwest is likely to receive rain for the rest of the week, raising concerns about delays in planting corn and soybeans, analysts said.

Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, wheat, soybeans and soyoil futures contracts on Tuesday, traders said. Funds were sellers of soymeal contracts on a net basis.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Sohini Goswami)