Global wheat planting may be affected by declining prices

Falling global wheat prices are likely to bring down the area in 2010-11, especially in the northern hemisphere, according to the USDA.

The northern hemisphere includes North America, about two-thirds of Africa, all of Asia and Europe.

''High supplies have put a dampener on prices and enthusiasm for planting wheat will likely be down, especially for the northern hemisphere spring crop which will be planted in May and June,'' the USDA said in its report.

Global prices have started declining due to a rise in supplies following a jump in production. The prices of US hard-red-winter wheat fell to US$205 per tonne in February from US$269 per tonne in May 2009, it added.

According to the report, global output this year may exceed the earlier estimate made in May 2009 by 20 million tonnes to 678 million tonnes. Higher output has also raised the global ending stock to 197 million tonnes this year, compared with 166 million tonnes in 2008-09, it said.

Major exporting countries such as the US, Australia, Canada and Europe are together estimated to keep an ending stock of 55 million tonnes this year, up by 19% from last year's level of 46.2 million tonnes, it added.