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GRAINS-Wheat drops 1.6% to hit 11-week low; corn, soybeans fall

SINGAPORE, June 21 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures slid 1.6% on Tuesday, with prices dropping to their lowest since early April, as harvest pressure from parts of Europe and North America weighed on the market.

Corn and soybeans fell for a second session to their lowest in almost one week.

FUNDAMENTALS
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 fell 1.6% to $10.18 a bushel, as of 0032 GMT. The market dropped to its lowest since April 4 at $10.13 a bushel earlier in the session.

Corn Cv1 lost 1.4% to $7.73-1/2 a bushel and soybeans Sv1 gave up 1.3% to $16.79-3/4 a bushel.

Wheat harvesting in parts of Europe and North America is easing some of the supply concerns triggered by a lack of Black Sea shipments, squeezed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Negotiations to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea has made little progress, providing a floor under wheat and corn markets.

Russia is committing a war crime by blocking the export of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Monday, as EU foreign ministers met to discuss ways to free up the crop amid a global food crisis.

China's corn imports from Ukraine in May plunged compared with a year ago, customs data showed on Monday, after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine cut shipments.

China, the world's top importer of corn, brought in 126,727 tonnes of the yellow grain from Ukraine, down sharply from 1.26 million tonnes a year ago, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. China imported 695,585 tonnes of corn from Ukraine in April.

The European Union's crop monitoring service MARS on Monday lowered its 2022 yield forecasts for most cereal and oilseed crops as dry conditions persisted in much of Europe.

For soft wheat, the EU's main cereal crop, MARS cut its projection of this year's yield to 5.76 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) from 5.89 t/ha forecast last month.

For U.S. corn and soybeans, the market is closely watching the U.S. weather. After being planted initially in wet and cold conditions, forecasts are projecting hotter-than-normal temperatures for the rest of the month, raising concerns about key growth stages.

Large speculators raised their net long position in CBOT corn futures in the week to June 14, regulatory data released on Friday showed.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and cut their net long position in soybeans.

MARKET NEWS
Stock markets chalked up modest gains on Monday after last week's hefty losses as investors braced for a host of U.S. Federal Reserve speakers this week, where they could underline a commitment to fight inflation whatever rate pain required.
By: via Malaysian Palm Oil Council Russia