SINGAPORE/PARIS, April 11 (Reuters) – Kansas hard red wheat futures are down about 3.5 percent Monday morning on a forecast for good rain this coming weekend in the dry U.S. southern Plains.
Chicago soft wheat is down a little less than three percent and hard red spring wheat is down almost two percent.
The southern plains have had very little rain through winter and early spring, raising worries of yield reductions.
If the rain materializes on the weekend, it would stop the deterioration.
“We have been looking at a long-term weather forecast which calls for rains in the U.S. Plains. This pattern seems to have strengthened and now heavy rainfall is expected over Saturday and Sunday,” an Australia-based agricultural commodities analyst said.
“If they get that rain, it takes away the only bullish factor for wheat prices.”
Chicago wheat prices are already under pressure with U.S. exporters facing difficulties in selling amid competition from cheaper suppliers in Europe and the Black Sea region.
The USDA reported lower-than-expected weekly export sales for wheat on Thursday.
Hefty supplies, large expected crops and poor U.S. exports will weigh on grain prices later this year, with corn and wheat set to drop to 10-year lows as harvest nears, consultancy AgResource said on Friday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issues its monthly crop supply-demand report due on Tuesday, which will estimate 2015-16 global ending crop stocks.
