Bloomberg Wheat Declines on Speculation Higher U.S. Acreage May Ease Supply Concern

Wheat fell in Chicago on reduced concern about global supply amid expectations for increased plantings in the U.S., the world’s largest exporter. March-delivery wheat dropped 0.7 percent to $8.0225 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 11:05 a.m. Paris time. The grain surged 47 percent last year as Russia’s worst drought in at least half a century, dry weather elsewhere in Europe and flooding in Canada slashed harvests.
U.S. farmers likely increased winter-wheat planting by 4.6 million acres to 41.9 million acres, McHenry, Illinois-based researcher and broker Allendale Inc. said in an e-mail today. Farm Futures said Jan. 4 its survey showed farmers seeded 42.37 million acres.

“It will certainly assist in terms of keeping supply pressure,” Michael Pitts, a commodity sales director at National Australia Bank Ltd., said by phone from Sydney today. “There are still concerns about protein wheat at this stage.” Higher plantings should help ease those concerns, he said.

Excessive rains in Canada, Australia and Germany reduced the protein content of some wheat harvests, lowering supply of milling-quality grain. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release its next estimates on global agricultural supply, including U.S. wheat, corn and soybean crops, on Jan. 12.
Milling wheat for March delivery added 0.3 percent to 251.75 euros ($330.20) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe in Paris.
Corn, Soybeans
March-delivery corn slipped 0.1 percent to $6.1875 a bushel in Chicago and soybeans were little changed at $13.9375 a bushel. Corn jumped 52 percent last year and soybeans added 34 percent as dry weather affected Argentina and Brazil, the world’s largest exporters of both crops after the U.S., adding to concerns global supply may tighten.

World food prices rose to a record in December on higher sugar, grain and oilseed costs, the United Nations said yesterday, exceeding levels reached in 2008 that sparked deadly riots from Haiti to Egypt.
An index of 55 food commodities tracked by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization gained for a sixth month to 214.7 points, above the prior all-time high of 213.5 in June 2008. The gauges for sugar and meat prices advanced to records.

Grain prices may extend 2010’s gains in the next few months on concern that dry weather in South America might hurt crops, said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist at the FAO. Advances for corn and soybeans will lift wheat prices, he said.