EU wheat steadies as harvests and exports are assessed
PARIS, July 30 (Reuters) -Euronext wheat futures steadied on Tuesday, recovering from the lowest price in almost two weeks as traders weighed up the latest harvest reports and signs that prices in top exporter Russia could be bottoming out.
September wheat BL2U4 on Paris-based Euronext was unchanged on the day at 216.00 euros ($233.26) a metric ton at 1526 GMT, having earlier touched its lowest since July 18 at 214.25 euros.
Chicago wheat Wv1 fell near to Monday's four-year low, pressured by favourable U.S. crop prospects, though it also pared early losses. GRA/
Wheat prices have been driven down by favourable U.S. and Russian harvest volumes and export competition from Russian and other Black Sea wheat. GRA/EU
However, traders and analysts have reported that export prices in Russia have steadied in the past week, supported by slow farmer selling.
"Russian prices are recovering as there is a bit of short-term supply tension," one futures dealer said.
But slack exports in western Europe were still curbing Euronext and taking attention away from a poor harvest outlook in France.
Results in a Tunisian tender, in which the importer booked 125,000 tons of optional-origin soft wheat, suggested more sales for Black Sea wheat, with French prices still seen as uncompetitive.
Weekly data showed European Union soft wheat exports in the first four weeks of the 2024/25 season were down 38% from a year earlier, though some figures for France were still missing.
In France, farmers were expected to make progress in harvesting during a hot spell early in the week after torrential rain at the weekend.
Storms forecast from later on Tuesday could interrupt field work again.
Traders said harvest reports suggested that rain-hit yields remained disappointing, including in major northern crop belts, and that production below the 29-year low of 27.6 million tons hit in 2016 was increasingly expected.
($1 = 0.9260 euros)
Reporting by Gus Trompiz
Editing by David Goodman
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