Corn, wheat, soy fall on hopes of progress in Ukraine export talks

FE Team | Published: July 19, 2022 22:41:01

PARIS/SINGAPORE, July 19 (Reuters): Chicago grain futures lost ground on Tuesday on hopes that a deal will be found to export more grains out of Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet his Turkish counterpart in Iran to discuss the matter.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Cv1 lost 3.4% to $5.90-1/4 a bushel, as of 1100 GMT. Wheat Wv1 fell 1.5% to $8.00-1/2 bushel while soybeans Sv1 gave up 1.4% to $13.60-1/2 a bushel.
Putin is due to meet Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan during a visit in Tehran on Tuesday to discuss a deal aimed at allowing the resumption of Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports as well as peace in Syria.
Still, analysts cautioned the impact of a deal to resume maritime exports of Ukrainian grain.
"Progress on exports of Ukrainian grain stored at Black Sea ports is not an indication of normalisation in export flows, and we still see profound dislocations in global agricultural trade flows," JPMorgan analysts said in a note.
Corn prices were also pressured by a weekly report showing the condition of the U.S. crop is stabilising in its key phase of development.
After the CBOT closed on Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rated 64% of the U.S. corn crop in good-to-excellent condition, unchanged from the previous week. Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average had expected a decline of 1 percentage point.
For soybeans, the USDA rated 61% of the crop as good-to-excellent, down from 62% the previous week, while analysts on average had expected no change.
Weather is in the spotlight as the U.S. corn crop continued to pollinate, a key phase for determining yields. Weekend rains boosted crops in the eastern Midwest, but dryness persists in western areas as forecasts called for rising temperatures.
The market is also awaiting results of a wheat import tender by Egypt, one of the world's largest wheat importers, which cut the minimum protein content of U.S. wheat to be offered in a tender on Tuesday, a move which would help generate more offers of U.S. wheat, traders said.