February 22, 2013

China buys 400,000 wheat from Australia

China has acquired about 400,000 tonnes of wheat from Australia.

It has also bought 100,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat in recent days, European traders said.

The purchases were in addition to about 350,000 tonnes of US-origin wheat that Chinese interests also bought in past days.

The Australian wheat was thought to be largely for April shipment, with some for the first half of May. It was mainly Australian standard white wheat, traders said.

Flour mills in China, the world's top consumer and producer of the staple grain, have resumed wheat imports from the US and Canada, spurred by record domestic prices and falling global prices of the grain, traders said.

Some European traders said they believed China had bought more than the 350,000 tonnes of US wheat reported in past days, with market talk ranging up to 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes.

Chinese importers were also said to be checking prices for noticeable volumes of corn because of high domestic prices but no purchases were reported by traders.