Euronext wheat recovered from near five-month-lows on Friday, led by technical gains in the front-month contracts, although cheaper Black Sea supplies restricted gains and distracted attention from poor harvests across western Europe.

Euronext December wheat was up 1.6% at 219,50 euros ($241,34) per metric ton as of 1541 GMT. It had earlier reached Thursday's lowest level of 215.75 euro, which was the lowest since March 20.

September futures was 3.1% higher, at 207.75 euro. The front-month contract, which also fell to its lowest level since March at 201.00 euro on Thursday but still held the 200 Euro chart floor, was also lower than it had been since March.

Dealers claim that the gains are due to technical adjustments made after the expiration of options on Thursday.

The wheat price has been weakened by Egypt failing to secure large quantities and the continued availability of Black Sea supplies that are competitive.

The market has been mulling over factors such as the continued downgrading of EU harvest expectations and the implications from an Egyptian tender, which while ambitious, was limited in its actions.

Traders report that after buying only 280,000 tons on Monday in its tender, Egyptian state agency GASC held informal discussions with suppliers for up to 1.8 millions tons, but has not yet signed any deals.

France's farmers are almost done harvesting their wheat crop that was ravaged by rain. It is expected to be smaller than any other since the 1980s.

The association of farm cooperatives in Germany said that the wheat harvest would be down 12.8% from last year, to 18.76 millions tons. This was a reduction after the repeated summer rain.

It said that some import requirements could not be ruled out.

In France, the quality of wheat was also a major concern.

According to traders, the recent rains may have led to a drop of 0.5 percentage points in Germany's protein content compared with last year.

A German trader stated that this could result in a lower German import requirement of high-protein wheat, and a lower German export surplus.

The world market doesn't need as much French or German wheat with the Black Sea supplies from Russia and Ukraine.

The price of Russian 12.5% Protein for shipment to the Black Sea in September was again well below $200 per ton FOB on Friday, at $217 to $218 per ton FOB. ($1 = 0.9095 euro) (Reporting and editing by Rod Nickel in Hamburg, Michael Hogan in Paris; Reporting by Gumpiz)

(source: Reuters)