EU Wheat Ends Higher Again

EU wheat futures closed higher Thursday, with November Paris milling wheat up EUR1.75 at EUR131.50/tonne, and London November feed wheat ending GBP1.50 higher at GBP103.50/tonne.

A firmer US market helped, after Chicago closed substantially higher overnight. Spec funds seem to be heavily short on US wheat and are getting caught between a rock and a hard place as unwinding of spreads drives US prices higher.

The severely delayed US corn and soybean harvest is also causing some serious concerns over delayed US winter wheat plantings. There is suddenly a lot of talk about many US wheat acres not making it into the ground.

In Europe, whilst export interest is still slack, growing conditions are far from ideal in the UK, France and Spain. In addition further east in the Ukraine there is also plenty of talk of wheat production in 2010 being little above domestic requirements.

Iraq is shopping for at least 100,000 MT of wheat in a tender for offers by Oct. 26.