Case in point: the recent wheat tenders. Instead of opting for US wheat, Syria's General Establishment for Cereal Processing and Trade (Hoboob) bought 200,000 tonnes of Black Sea origin wheat in its latest international purchasing tender, a government source said. Meanwhile, trading house Agrocorp secured a tender to supply 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh, and is expected to draw grain from Russia to fulfil the deal, according to officials with the state grains buyer.
As of 11:45 a.m. CDT (1745 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade March wheat was down 12 cents at $4.92 per bushel, after falling to $4.91-1/2, the contract's lowest level in more than a year and the lowest for a most-active contract since Oct. 31. Technical selling also sent corn futures to the lowest in several months and sent soyabean futures prices falling.
The most-active soyabean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 11-1/2 cents at $8.96 a bushel at 11:53 CDT (1753 GMT), after having firmed on Friday. Markets were closed on Monday for a US public holiday. Corn was down 5-1/2 cents at $3.69-1/4 a bushel, having closed unchanged on Friday.
Traders said that grain and oilseed futures were also being pressured by mounting concerns about exactly how much soyabean acreage US farmers will plant this spring, as South American weather improves and export competition from Brazil and Argentina shows little signs of waning.