CHICAGO- US wheat futures fell nearly 6 percent on Friday to their lowest level since February after Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, traders said.
Corn fell almost 2 percent on the news but soybean futures closed higher, rebounding from multi-month lows.
Chicago Board of Trade September wheat settled down 47-1/4 cents at $7.59 per bushel after dipping to $7.54, the contract’s lowest since Feb. 4.
December corn ended down 9-1/4 cents at $5.64-1/4 a bushel while November soybeans rose 14-1/4 cents to finish at $13.15-3/4, bouncing after a dip to $12.88-1/2, a six-month low.
The Russia-Ukraine accord, which crowned two months of talks brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, raised hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Istanbul, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the deal opens the way to significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports — Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.
Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s biggest grain exporters.
Meanwhile, export demand for US wheat has been slow, despite a plunge in futures. CBOT September wheat has tumbled more than $5 a bushel, or 41 percent, since mid-May.
“There is business around on the break in price. But we are not getting any of it; we are still $40 a ton over world values,” said Terry Linn, analyst with Linn & Associates, a Chicago brokerage.
Buyers from China purchased large volumes of Australian and French wheat this week, European traders said.
