Traders said that European wheat futures declined in the late trading on Friday due to poor export prospects and low prices in the Black Sea region, which overshadowed new data showing France’s harvest was damaged by rain this summer.

The European market was impacted by the low prices of Black Sea exporters for Russian wheat and positive news regarding the Russian and Ukrainian harvests, as well as the early Friday fall in U.S. futures wheat prices.

The Paris-based Euronext exchange saw September wheat prices fall 1.2% to 217.00 euro ($236) per metric ton. Euronext has retreated after hitting a two-week high of 227.50 euro on Monday, due to concerns about rain damaging crops.

FranceAgriMer, the farm office for France, said that soft wheat harvesting was still below average and ratings were down again this week. Only 50% of French soft wheats are in excellent or good condition compared to 52% last week.

One German trader stated that the French harvest was still bad, but the export competition from the Black Sea region is so intense that not much EU wheat could be sold on export markets.

This summer's rainy weather has hampered French and German harvests, which could lead to a loss of quality. In Germany, rain fell again on Friday. More is expected over the weekend. Next week may be drier.

Sovecon, a Russian consulting firm, raised its estimate for Russia's wheat crop in 2024 to 84.7 millions tons on Friday. This is up from the previous estimate of 84.2 million tons. Ukraine's harvest has also been progressing quickly.

A German trader stated that "Black Sea Wheat prices, particularly Russian, Ukrainian, and Romanian wheat, are so low and below West Europe, the west EU is essentially out of the export industry,"

According to traders, the price of Russian 11.5% protein for August Black Sea shipment is $210-$212 per ton FOB. Ukrainian 11.5% is $211-$215 per ton and Romanian 115% is $218-$226. (Reporting and editing by Kirsten Doovan, Emelia Sithole Matarise, and Michael Hogan)