By Michael Hogan, Peter Hobson and Gus Trompiz
In recent weeks, Hamburg/Canberra/Paris (Reuters) -Chinese buyers have bought between 400,000 and 500,000 tonnes of wheat from Australia and Canada, said traders, because Hitte threatens to damage crops in the Chinese agricultural areas.
China is the world's best wheat player and also imports large amounts of grain when the domestic stock is inadequate in demand.
Earlier this week, the province of Henan, which grows around a third of China's crop, issued a risk -warning, because the weather is called the wheat growth in its fields.
Chinese buyers have purchased four or five 55,000 tons of wheat from Australia for delivery in July or August and about 200,000 tons from Canada, sources at two large trading companies in Australia. The wheat is of milling quality.
The bookings from Australia were first made by China from the country since last year, one of the traders said.
Cofco, the state-owned company Chinese company that handles the majority of the wheat import of the country, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
In recent years, China has been one of the world's largest wheat importers and bought around 11 million tonnes worth $ 3.5 billion in 2024. Australia and Canada are usually the largest suppliers.
But shipments delayed sharply after China had harvested large wheat and corn harvest last year and have remained low since then.
Earlier this year, China delayed or diverted shipments from Australia and imported less than a million tonnes of wheat in the seven months to 31 March, according to Chinese customs data accessible via Trade Data Monitor.
One of the sources said that their company had reduced the prediction of the Chinese wheat production of 2025 by around 5 million tons, but there was no guarantee that more purchases would follow because China has large wheat inventories.
“China is good self -sufficient in food pellets this crop year with heavy shares,” said Rod Baker, an analyst at Australian crop forecasters in Perth, adding that faltering economic growth in China was also depressing demand for grains.
According to traders, according to traders, the Canadian wheat sale has repeated the farms in Winnipeg, Canada's Grain Industry Capital. Few concrete details about the sale have emerged.
Chinese buyers would have avoided buying our wheat because of rates and the trade war between Washington and Beijing, a trader said. In the past, China has been a top destination for the sale of wheat in the US.
The drop-off in Chinese import earlier in the current season 2024/25 had contributed to modest international wheat prices, with benchmarkfutures in Chicago still near a four-year layer touched in July last July.
