(Businessweek) – Wheat rose to the highest level in more than a week amid concerns that freezing weather will damage winter grain in the Black Sea region and may have affected crops in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter.
Snow cover in the former Soviet Union is forecast to stay limited in the next two weeks, leaving winter wheat vulnerable to cold snaps, MDA Weather Services wrote yesterday. U.S. winter-wheat crop conditions deteriorated in the week through Nov. 23, a government report showed. Temperatures in the upper U.S. Midwest fell below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) last week, based on data from World Ag Weather.
“Wheat prices continue to show a certain strength in a context of sustained export activity and concerns about crop conditions in the U.S. and Russia, confronted with a cold wave,” Paris-based farm adviser Agritel wrote. “Crop development in the Black Sea region is seen as insufficient to serenely face winter.”
Wheat for March delivery advanced 0.9 percent to $5.63 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 6:11 a.m. after earlier touching $5.655, the highest since Nov. 17. Prices are up 5.7 percent in November, heading for a second monthly gain. Milling wheat for January delivery traded in Paris rose 1.3 percent to 182.75 euros ($227.77) a metric ton.
About 58 percent of the U.S. crop was in good or excellent condition as of Nov. 23, down from 60 percent a week earlier and 62 percent a year ago, according to the Department of Agriculture. The U.S. was the top shipper in 2013-2014, USDA data show.
Soybeans for delivery in January rose 0.1 percent to $10.5225 a bushel. Corn for March delivery advanced 0.7 percent to $3.8975 a bushel.
