Wheat advanced for a sixth day, the longest winning streak this year, as declining exportable supplies from Russia, the third-biggest shipper, may increase demand for U.S. exports. Corn and soybeans gained.
Wheat for March delivery climbed 1.2 percent to $6.4875 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 3:49 p.m. Singapore time.
Stockpiles held by farmers in Russia’s main exporting regions in the south have dropped below last year’s levels, declining as much as 50 percent in some areas, SovEcon, a Moscow-based agricultural researcher said yesterday.
“There have been some statements that the grain exports have increased quite significantly,” Lynette Tan, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte., said by phone from Singapore today. Russia may impose export restrictions, making U.S. supplies more attractive, she said. The country barred exports in August 2010 after its worst drought in half a century, sending prices to a two-year high that month. The ban was lifted in July last year.
Inventories with farmers in the Krasnodar region, home to Russia’s main export hub in Novorossiysk, have halved, SovEcon said. In the Southern Federal District, farmers held 40 percent less grain than in 2011, while inventories held by producers in the Rostov region fell 42 percent, it said.
Russia’s three major grain-exporting provinces have shipped most of their supplies and that will lead to a “dramatic” slowdown in shipments from now through June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service said Jan. 19. U.S. wheat inspected for export gained 27 percent in the week ended Jan. 19 from a week earlier, the USDA said Jan. 23.
Corn Gains
Corn advanced for a sixth straight day, the longest winning streak in almost four weeks, as crop losses from a drought in Mexico deepened, potentially boosting demand for U.S. supplies. The country is the world’s second-largest importer after Japan and the second-biggest buyer of U.S. corn.
Acreage damage almost doubled after the worst drought on record. Losses covered 1.15 million hectares (2.8 million acres) as of Dec. 31 for the season ending in March, compared with 630,170 hectares a year earlier, according to data from the nation’s Agriculture Ministry posted yesterday.
March-delivery corn gained 0.8 percent to $6.3925 a bushel. Soybeans for delivery in the same month rose 0.5 percent to $12.1975 a bushel.
