Benchmark December milling wheat on the Paris-based Euronext unofficially closed up 0.50 euro or 0.2% at 170.75 euros ($190.28) a tonne after hitting 171.50 euros in earlier trade. The lowest offer presented at the tender from Egyptian state buyer GASC was $193.86 a tonne for 60,000 tonnes of French grain, traders said on Tuesday. The offer was made by trading house Glencore. Traders noted that the price was particularly low and that only one cargo of French wheat had been offered. Russian and Ukrainian wheat were also offered in the tender with results still awaited as Paris closed.
Otherwise, a general lack of export demand was also keeping a lid on prices, traders said. French wheat is being offered at competitive prices in world markets but despite the low prices, actual sales are thin, a trader said. Port data shows that Algeria accounted for 57% of French wheat exports since the start of the July/June season.
In Germany, wheat harvesting is now generally finished as hot weather in past days enabled work in the last northern regions to be cut. "The repeated rain in August following the heatwave in June created some damage to wheat in the final northern areas of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern but not so much as some feared," one German trader said. "The rain means the harvest in Schleswig-Holstein, which is an important supplier for exports, is about 11.5% protein instead of 12% usually. This is certainly not feed wheat but is probably not good enough for Germany's traditional export customers who generally want at least 12%."