CANBERRA- Chicago wheat futures rose nearly 3 percent on Tuesday to their highest level since last July on concerns that adverse weather in top exporter Russia is reducing yields and tightening global supply.
Soybean and corn futures also gained.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 2.9 percent at $7.17-1/4 a bushel, after rising as high as $7.20 earlier in the session.
Prices have leaped more than 35 percent from a 3-1/2-year low of $5.24 a bushel in March, when Russia was shipping record amounts of grain and appeared set for another bumper harvest this year.
Dry weather and bitter frosts have hit cropping regions in Russia’s south and little rain is forecast. Meanwhile, too much rain in Siberia has waterlogged soil there.
Consultants IKAR on Monday slashed their estimate for Russian wheat production to 81.5 million metric tons and exports to 44 million tons. Only a month ago, IKAR predicted production of 93 million tons and exports of 52 million tons.
Some 1.5 million hectares of Russian crops have been damaged by frosts, and the total figure may rise to 2 million hectares, the head of Russia’s Grain Union said.
