SINGAPORE, July 17 (Reuters): Chicago corn and soybean futures gained more ground on Monday, building on last week's rise as concerns over dry weather in the US Midwest drove prices higher.
Wheat climbed nearly 1 per cent as slowing exports from the Black Sea region and lower output in China supported prices.
"I think corn and soybean markets are gathering weather concerns at present," said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.7 per cent at $5.17-3/4 a bushel, as of 0231 GMT, after touching its highest since June 30 at $5.23 earlier in the day.
Soybeans climbed 0.8 per cent to $13.81 a bushel, while wheat gained 0.9 per cent to $6.67-1/4 a bushel, have risen earlier in the session to $6.71, the highest since July 6.
Concerns over dryness in the U.S. Midwest also supported corn and soybean futures. The US corn crop is going through its key pollination phase and a lack of moisture could curb yields.
A UN-brokered deal that allows the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain has not been extended as of Sunday, but "everything is possible," the Russian TASS state news agency reported, citing two unnamed United Nations sources.
The last ship to travel under the UN-brokered deal left the port of Odesa early on Sunday ahead of a deadline to extend the agreement, according to a Reuters witness and MarineTraffic.com.
China's summer wheat output fell 0.9 per cent this year, official data showed on Saturday, the first decline in seven years after heavy rain hit key growing areas just ahead of the harvest.
Output in the grain's top grower in the world fell to 134.53 million metric tons, the National Bureau of Statistics said, although it added that this year still brought a bumper harvest.
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