Wheat price shoots through the roof

Wheat has seen unprecedented price increases in the past week. The March contract rose by 60% to 1,348 cents per bushel. In addition, the euro fell from $1.12 to $1.09. The result is that the price, converted into euros, rose even more (+65%), to €455 per tonne.

Price increasing daily

Normally, the price of this product moves at (much) less than half of this level. Not so long ago, farmers became enthusiastic when the price crossed the €200 per tonne barrier. That really fuelled the desire to sell. Now that the price is rising daily, people are rather hesitant. Because tomorrow there will be more.

Trade focused on May

The futures market in Paris closed on Friday at € 393.75 per tonne. That meant a price increase of 36% in a week. On Monday, the price was initially quickly pushed towards € 450. But the sales in the March contract remained very small.

Trade has now focused much more on delivery in May. Prices there have also risen sharply. Just like at the end of last week, the limit of € 400 per tonne for May delivery was tested on Monday 7 March, but the price remained just below that in the afternoon.

In Chicago on March 7, early trading focused mainly on the July contracts and also on the May and September contracts. Old harvest immediately showed further price increases of 5 to 7% compared to Friday. New harvest recorded a plus of more than 3%.