EU Wheat Ends Higher

EU wheat futures closed higher Wednesday in a continued consolidation from last week's lows.

March Paris milling wheat futures ended up EUR3 at EUR129/tonne, and May London feed wheat closed up GBP1.55 at GBP97.80/tonne.

There's still not a great deal of fresh news about. Farmer selling remains light at least until after Christmas.

The pound hit a fresh all-time low against the euro, sub-EUR1.14 which should help UK exports remain competitive. Reports of UK wheat being shipped to such unlikely destinations as France and the US would appear to confirm that sterling, and low freight, is helping dispose of a hefty surplus crop this year.

Strategie Grains said that next year's UK soft wheat crop will be around 8% down on 2008/09 at just over 16mmt.

ONIGC confirmed the French 2008/09 soft wheat crop at 37.321mmt.

They also said that French corn ending stocks for 2008/09 will be 3.5mmt, up from last month's estimate of 3.0mmt.