Black Sea supply concerns drive wheat, corn futures up

Chicago wheat jumped more than 2% on Tuesday, while corn climbed to its highest in seven months on worries over supply disruption from the key grain exporting Black Sea regions, as the Russia-Ukraine crisis deepened, Successful Farming writes.

Soybeans rose for a fourth consecutive session and hit their highest in more than a week on concerns over dry weather in Brazil and Argentina.

"The Russia-Ukraine situation is getting serious," said one Singapore-based grains trader. "The issue will dominate trading direction."

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 2% at USD 8.20 a bushel, as of 0152 GMT, after hitting its highest since Jan. 25 at USD 8.27 a bushel.

Corn gained 1.5% to USD 6.64 a bushel, having earlier climbed to its highest since June at USD 6.65 a bushel and soybeans added 1.4% to USD 16.23-3/4 a bushel, the highest since Feb. 10.

The wheat market is being supported by tensions between leading exporters Russia and Ukraine.

Oil jumped to a seven-year high, safe-havens rallied and U.S. stock futures dived on Tuesday as Europe's eastern flank stood on the brink of war after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine.

For soybeans, Brazil's farmers had harvested 33% of the country's area as of Thursday, against 24% a week earlier and 15% by the same time last year, but still faced widespread weather-related issues, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday. The top grain-producing state of Mato Grosso has been hit by excessive rain, hurting soybean quality, while Brazil's southernmost states have been affected by hot and dry weather recently.

Argentina's 2021/22 soybean and corn crops could see yields continue to decline in the weeks ahead with abundant rains only expected to arrive in mid-March to relieve a lengthy period of dry weather, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said.

Related: From Field to Port: Corn. Production, Storage and Profitable Sale

Wheat export from Ukraine since the start of 2021/22 has come to 17.85 mln t, 34% up YoY. In the current season, wheat supply from Ukraine is limited to 23.5 mln t.

Learn more: TOP 10 Importing Countries of Ukrainian Grain in 2020

The projection for wheat export from Ukraine in 2021/22 was cut by 0.2 mln t to 24 mln t by the USDA in its February report.