Mumbai, 19 Mar (Commoditiescontrol): Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures traded flat-line on Tuesday after export-threatening Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports pushed them up more than 2% in the previous session, but prices remained near their lowest since 2020 amid plentiful supply.
The most-active wheat contract on the CBOT was flat at $5.42-3/4 a bushel. The contract fell to $5.23-1/2, its lowest since August 2020, on March 11, amid a flood of cheap grain from top exporter Russia, which has had two large production years and expects a third this year.
Russian air attacks at the weekend damaged agricultural enterprises and destroyed several industrial buildings in the port of Odesa in Ukraine, another significant grain exporter.
The Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv was also hit, with Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil refineries and Vladimir Putin's re-election as Russia's president raising fears that tensions between the two countries might escalate.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT wheat on Monday, traders said.
Analysts at Citi said in a note they were "neutral-bearish" on CBOT wheat.
Elsewhere, Ukraine's 2024 corn sowing area is likely to decrease by 4.5% from last year to 3.863 million hectares, the agriculture ministry said, with farmers also set to decrease the sown area of spring wheat and sunflower and increase the sown area of spring barley and soybeans.
Drought in the western Canadian province of Alberta is stretching into its fourth year and farmers are planning for water restrictions that threaten production of wheat.
(By Commoditiescontrol Bureau: 09820130172)