Dryness in U.S. and Eastern Europe hurts winter wheat plants

The wheat price on the CBOT gained by nearly 4% yesterday and thus achieved the highest daily gain of all exchange-traded commodities. US wheat now costs more than $5 per bushel again for the first time since mid-October. In its slipstream, European wheat that is traded on the Euronext in Paris also increased in price by a good 1% to €181 per ton, notes Commerzbank. 

Concerns about weather-related damage to the 2016 winter wheat crop that has now been sown are driving prices up. Apart from in Texas, where there was heavy rainfall at the weekend, conditions remain too dry in the other winter wheat growing areas in the US Midwest. The same applies to large parts of the wheat growing areas of Ukraine and Southern Russia. In addition, there are already very low sub-zero (Celsius) temperatures there. 

MARS, the crop forecasting authority of the European Commission, also reports continuing dry weather conditions for Poland, which are apparently hampering planting and the emergence of the sown winter grain. The EU's three leading wheat growing countries - France, Germany and Great Britain - have reported no such problems, on the other hand. According to MARS, excessive rainfall in the southeast of the EU has been hampering the planting of winter grains, however. MARS has not yet released any estimates of crop yields. , says Commerzbank.