EU wheat falls towards 300 euros as Black Sea supplies weigh

Euronext wheat fell to a 3-1/2 month low on Friday to approach the psychological 300-euro threshold as availability of cheaper Russian and Ukrainian supplies pressured prices.

March milling wheat (BL2H3), the most active position on the Paris-based Euronext exchange, settled down 1.5% at 307.75 euros ($324.00) a tonne.

It earlier touched its weakest level since Aug. 19 at 306.75 euros, below a previous three-month low on Tuesday.

Chicago wheat ZW1! also fell to a fresh three-month low as modest weekly U.S. exports kept attention on competition from Black Sea wheat.

World food prices edged down in November in an eighth straight monthly fall since a record high after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said.

Wheat futures have been curbed by a record Russian harvest and the continuation of a wartime grain export channel from Ukraine.

"The Ukraine corridor is functioning and Russian exports are flowing too," a French trader said.

Traders also played down initial expectations that a large portion of around 450,000 tonnes of wheat booked by Algeria on Wednesday would be sourced in France, seeing greater chances for Baltic or Bulgarian wheat due to prices and availability.

However, wheat export premiums for nearby delivery in France held firm on expected needs to cover large sales to China. (GRAIN/SHP/FR)

French port silo operator Nord Cereales said it had shipped its biggest volume in over 10 years at Dunkirk for July-November, led for loadings for Egypt and China.

Soft wheat crops remained nearly all in good condition in the week to Nov. 28, farm office FranceAgriMer said.

A cold spell in France was expected to intensify in the coming week but traders said the progressive cooling of temperatures since late November should limit risks to crops.

In rapeseed, February futures (COMG3) on Euronext settled 3.2% lower at 566.75 euros a tonne, after earlier setting a lowest front-month price (COMc1) since October.

A slide in Chicago soyoil (BOv1), triggered by smaller-than-expected U.S. biofuel mandates, continued to weigh on rapeseed, traders said.

($1 = 0.9498 euros)