BLBG: Wheat Gains for Third Day in Paris as Canadian Crop's Quality Deteriorates
Wheat rose for a third day in Paris on speculation wet weather early in the year and a late frost hurt the quality of the crop in Canada, the world’s second- biggest exporter of the grain.
Harvesting of milling wheat, used to make bread and pasta, finished earlier this month, according to the Canadian Wheat Board. Adverse weather reduced the quality, which may boost demand for milling wheat from the European Union. Paris wheat has gained 2.8 percent from the Nov. 22 closing price.
“With the poor-quality harvest from Canada, milling wheat is in higher demand,” said Luke Paterson, an analyst with Porter Agriculture in Braintree, England.
Milling wheat for January delivery gained 1 euro, or 0.5 percent, to 217 euros ($289.54) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe at 12:14 p.m. London time. Prices have jumped 17 percent since the end of July, when Russia -- last year’s third-biggest shipper of the grain -- said it would halt exports after the country’s worst drought in a half-century.
Canada aims to export 10.7 million tons of wheat in the current marketing year ending July 31, down 21 percent from the prior period, the CWB said in a report last week. Global stockpiles will total 172.5 million tons at the end of the marketing year on May 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report.
“While there is a lot of wheat in the world, the volume of quality wheat is in tight supply,” Ward Weisensel, chief operating officer at the CWB, said in a report on Nov. 18. “Right now we’re looking at only 38 percent of the Canada western red spring wheat crop grading in the top two grades.”
Grain trading in Chicago is closed today for the Thanksgiving holiday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.
