Traders said hefty supplies weighed on prices but stressed the lack of new elements to give the market a clear trend. "Bearish elements are starting to be behind us and there is not much room for a rise in price in a very competitive global market," one trader said. Traders feared that the sharp fall in the peso after Argentina announced a new debt plan will increase competition with French wheat in markets such as Algeria.
A cargo is expected to load around 60,000 tonnes of French wheat for China next week, the second shipment this season. France has in recent years exported large volumes of barley to China but wheat shipments to the country are rare. In Germany, the farm ministry on Thursday confirmed expectations the country will gather a larger wheat crop on the year despite concerns about this summer's combination of heatwave and repeated shower which was stressful for crops.
Germany will harvest 22.71 million tonnes of winter wheat in 2019, up by 15.9% from last year's crop which was especially small because of drought, the ministry said in its first harvest estimate.