The Russian attacks on the port of Odessa caused a rapid rise in US wheat prices on Tuesday.

As the deadline for the agreement on the grain corridor in the Black Sea approaches, Russian drone attacks on the port of Odessa raise more than ever the question of its renewal after July 17.

Wheat prices quickly went back into the green on Tuesday evening in Chicago. The drone attacks reported in Odessa and Kiev have indeed revived market fears about the risk of a non-renewal of the secure corridor in the Black Sea on July 18.

While NATO leaders are meeting on July 11 and 12 in Lithuania at a summit strongly criticized by the Kremlin, the Ukrainian Air Force in fact reported an attack by 28 Russian drones on the night of Monday to Tuesday, targeting the south of the country.

The majority was destroyed, but two of them hit an administrative building in the port of Odessa, and the fall of scraps from shot down drones caused a fire in “two terminals near the port, including a grain terminal”, but without critical damage, regional governor Oleg Kiper said in a statement.

In its last weekly Crop Progress, the USDA also reduced its “good to excellent” spring wheat ratings by one point to 47% (70% last year).

The recent rains in the Corn Belt also motivated only a slight improvement of one point in soybean ratings, to 51% “good to excellent” (62% in 2022). On the other hand, the “good to excellent” corn rate was increased by four points, to 55% from “good to excellent”, compared to 64% last year. Winter wheat harvests in the Midwest, on the other hand, remain significantly behind with 46% of the work completed, compared to 59% on average for five years.

At the close of Chicago on Tuesday evening, SRW wheat due in September 2023 jumped from c$14.25/bu, to $6.61/bu (+€4.8/t approximately, to €222/t). December 2023 term corn appreciated from 2.0 c$/bu to $5.01/bu (+€0.72 t, to €181.6/t). The soybean for delivery in November 2023 increased from $14.75 c/bu, to $13.6/bu (+5 €/t, to 503.7 €/t).

Source: terre-net.fr