Wheat futures declined on Monday as rains across Russia and Eastern Europe gave farmers in drought-stricken regions some hope that the next year's crops may do better than this year's.
Many Russian and Ukrainian farmers feared that they would be unable to plant their crops in the persistently dry, sun-baked soil.
"The Russian situation has maybe not gotten a whole lot better, but it hasn't gotten any worse either," Mike Tannura, the president of T-Storm Weather in Chicago, told Bloomberg News. "They have seen some moisture return there, and it has been somewhat beneficial."
Comex wheat futures for December delivery lost 2.5 cents to $6.525 per bushel.
The future of the global wheat markets is still uncertain, with Russia's ban on exports extending through 2011 and crops in Canada and Australia also threatened by weather conditions. The drought crisis in Russia has also pushed the Kremlin to create a food security plan that would make Russia independent of the need for imported grains, meat and milk by 2020.
Indeed, prime minister Vladimir Putin wants Russia to once again be a net exporter of food – but first, it has to deal with the dire state of its central Black Sea agricultural regions.
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