By Colin Packham
SYDNEY, May 1 (Reuters) – U.S. wheat futures rose more than two percent on Monday as frost across key growing regions stoked fears of widespread production losses, pushing prices to a six-week high.
Heavy snow in some parts of the Plains also caused problems, with worries about stem breakage. Heavy rain in areas to the east in the Midwest are causing field flooding.
The most active wheat futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade in overnight trade rose as much as 2.5 percent to $4.43 a bushel, the highest since March 10. Wheat was trading up 2.1 percent at $4.41-1/4 a bushel by 0017 GMT, after rising 0.2 percent on Friday.
“With frost through Kansas, Colorado and even stretching through to Oklahoma, the market is concerned about how much of the crop has been damaged,” said Andrew Woodhouse, grains analyst at Advance Trading Australasia.
Frost threatens rapidly maturing hard red winter wheat crops, with Kansas the biggest producing state in the United States.
The cold weather in the U.S. adds to a spate of unfavourable weather that threatens to curtail global production.
Farming agency FranceAgriMer on Friday reported a sharp decline in crop conditions for wheat, with the amount of soft wheat rated good/excellent falling to 78 percent from 85 percent in the week to April 24.
The most active corn futures rose 1.3 percent to $3.71-1/4 a bushel, having closed down 0.8 percent in the previous session. The most active soybean futures rose 0.4 percent to $9.60-1/2 a bushel, having closed down 0.1 percent on Friday.
