Corn futures advanced for the first time in five sessions, while wheat and soybeans also gained, on speculation recent declines made U.S. supplies more attractive to importers and investors, amid signs of stronger global demand. Corn for December delivery added 0.6 percent to $5.605 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:43 p.m. Singapore time. The grain lost 3.8 percent from Oct. 12 through yesterday. Russia may import more than 2 million metric tons of corn in the marketing year that started July 1, mostly from Ukraine, Andrei Sizov Jr., SovEcon managing director, said yesterday. That’s double the level of imports forecast for the country by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “It’s probably seen by some as a buy opportunity,” said Michael Pitts, commodity sales director at National Australia Bank Ltd., referring to the price declines. Russia’s corn imports are “obviously supportive” for prices, he said. Corn imports by Russia from the U.S. may be “several hundred thousand tons,” with deliveries unlikely before the start of 2011, Sizov said. SovEcon, a Moscow-based researcher, forecast higher imports for Russia after it estimated on Oct. 15 that the nation’s corn crop will fall 24 percent from the previous year to less than 3 million tons. Ukraine, the world’s fourth-largest corn exporter last year, set a 2 million-ton limit on shipments of the grain from yesterday through to the end of the year, according to a resolution posted on the government’s website. December-delivery wheat rose as much 0.9 percent to $6.965 a bushel, before trading at $6.95. Export Limits Ukraine also set limits of 500,000 tons on wheat exports and 200,000 tons for barley. The government, which forecast Ukraine’s grain harvest will decline by 16 percent this year to 38.6 million tons, had debated whether to introduce export quotas since August as it sought to control domestic food prices after a drought damaged crops and inflation accelerated to 10.5 percent last month. Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, plans to buy at least 55,000 tons from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Argentina, U.K., Germany or France in a tender today for shipment in December, Nomani Nomani, the vice chairman of the state-run General Authority for Supply Commodities, said yesterday. January-delivery soybeans gained 0.9 percent $12.055 a bushel. Soybeans for export inspected at U.S. ports rose 22 percent from a week earlier to 59.4 million bushels in the week to Oct. 14, the USDA said yesterday. Rough rice for November delivery rose 1.1 percent to $13.86 per 100 pounds in Chicago, gaining for a sixth day, the longest winning streak for the most-active contract since Nov. 4, 2009. Typhoon Losses Rice gains are being driven by crop losses in the Philippines from Typhoon Megi, said Kiattisak Kanlayasirivat, a director at Novel Commodities SA’s Thai office, which trades about $600 million worth of rice every year. Crops are at risk of damage in 132,847 hectares of rice land in the Philippines, the world’s biggest buyer, after Typhoon Megi, the strongest to hit the country this year, crossed the main island of Luzon, the government said today. Losses may reach 600,000 tons, widening the nation’s production deficit, Agriculture Undersecretary Antonio Fleta said in a phone interview from Manila yesterday, based on an estimate that 157,000 hectares may be affected. The damage from the typhoon may raise the nation’s import needs by 500,000 tons of milled rice, Chookiat Ophaswongse, former president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said yesterday. The Philippines is expected to begin purchasing rice to meet its import needs by the end of the year, Kiattisak said by phone from Bangkok today. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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