By Tony C. Dreibus
Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat rose for the first time this week on increased demand for U.S. supplies.
Exporters sold 726,400 metric tons of the grain to overseas buyers last week, up 19 percent from the previous week, U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday. Morocco's Ministry of Agriculture plans to suspend import tariffs on soft wheat to boost inventories as domestic supplies are expected to trail demand this year. Morocco imported 3.7 million tons last year.
``We did see some export demand come in,'' said
Clark Neighbors, a commodities broker at Bump Investor Services in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. ``We're in a tight trading range in wheat. It's at the tail end of harvest and it seems to be well- supported.''
Wheat for September delivery rose 16 cents, or 2 percent, to $7.9975 a bushel at 10:42 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Futures are up 26 percent in the past year after adverse weather curbed output in 2007.
The price still has fallen 41 percent from a record $13.495 on Feb. 27 and 1.4 percent this week, partly on U.S. government estimates for record global output this year.
Morocco will scrap import duties on soft wheat starting Aug. 16 and increase supplies by September, when demand increases around the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Ministry of Agriculture said late yesterday in a statement. Duties on durum wheat were lifted in May.
Morocco's 2008 wheat harvest will double to 5 million tons after drought cut the 2007 crop to a seven-year low, government figures show. The country was the third-largest wheat importer in Africa last year, after Egypt and Algeria, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Wheat is the fourth-biggest U.S. crop, valued at $13.7 billion in 2007, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Tony C. Dreibus in Chicago at
Tdreibus@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 1, 2008 11:44 EDT
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