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Wheat prices higher amid Russian quality concerns

An ag economist says concerns over Russian wheat quality caused U.S. wheat futures to move higher Thursday.

Jim McCormick with AgMarket.Net says Russia’s winter wheat condition rating is sharply below year ago levels. “A private agency came out and said (Russia’s) winter wheat condition rating stands at about 31%. I think it’s actually the worst ratings for this time of year in about 23 years.”

He tells Brownfield the world market is set by Russia. “Russia exports around 23%-to-24% of the world’s wheat.”

McCormick says there are also some quality issues in Australia that’s helping boost U.S. prices. “We are just off multi-month highs. In general, we are still struggling to get our wheat out to the world as we’re not seeing a whole lot of buyers at the moment.”

He says the U.S. dollar has shown signs of weakening and that could help make products more competitive in the global market.

INTERVIEW: AgMarket.Net’s Jim McCormick 12-5-2024