SINGAPORE, July 11 (Reuters) – Chicago corn futures climbed more than 4% on Monday, extending previous session’s rally on concerns over global supplies and strong demand, while wheat rose to its highest since late June.
Soybeans jumped more than 1%, rising for a fourth consecutive session.
“The market’s tightness going into season 2022 is beginning to re-assert itself,” said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, referring to the move in corn futures.
“As is the patchy weather outlook across several significant segments across Europe. Crop yields are at risk of downgrade in many of these locations.”
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 4.2% to $6.49-1/2 a bushel, as of 0430 GMT and wheat added 2.5% to $9.14 a bushel, after hitting its highest since June 30 at $9.40 a bushel.
Soybeans gained 1.4% to $14.15-1/2 a bushel.
Robust world demand for agricultural products is driving grain and oilseed prices higher.
European Union wheat is being scooped up at the start of the 2022/23 crop season, as importers profit from a pullback in prices from records and seek alternatives to Ukrainian supplies disrupted by war, traders and analysts said.
A rare purchase of German wheat this week by Egypt’s state grains buyer, which ramped up direct purchases outside international tenders, underscored how EU wheat is being tapped in the Middle East and Africa to cover the early part of the new season that started this month.
Traders said there was market chatter about China showing interest in foreign wheat and corn for possible import purchases.
China, the world’s biggest soybean importer, and unknown buyers in the week ended June 30 cancelled purchases of about 465,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans for 2021/22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a weekly export sales report.
French farmers had harvested 14% of this year’s soft wheat crop by July 4 against 5% a week earlier, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Friday.
In India, farmers have fallen behind in planting key summer-sown crops such as rice, corn and soybeans due to the uneven distribution of monsoon rainfall, although they could recover ground in the coming week if there is enough rain.
As of July 8, 40.67 million hectares had been planted with summer crops, some 9.3% less than a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare.
They also adjusted positions ahead of USDA’s monthly supply and demand report due on Tuesday.
Large speculators cut their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week to July 5, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, trimmed their net short position in CBOT wheat and cut their net long position in soybeans. (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
