Wheat rose in Chicago on speculation that North African and Middle East importers may take advantage of lower prices to build supplies in an effort to keep food prices stable amid political unrest. Wheat fell 3.6 percent in the two sessions before today. Jordan tendered for 100,000 metric tons of wheat and 100,000 tons of barley, the government said yesterday. As many as 150 people have died in Egypt in clashes between police and demonstrators during a week-long uprising against President Hosni Mubarak. “There’s a lot of concern around that prices could go higher,” said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London. “The problem is coming from the supply side. There’s a continuing set of production downgrades, starting with Russia last year.” March-delivery wheat rose 9.25 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $8.35 a bushel at 10:46 a.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade. Futures slumped the past two days on concern that riots in Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, might disrupt deliveries. “Now the recent concerns are over drought that could affect Chinese production,” Unnikrishnan said. A drought in China may destroy about 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres) of wheat, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Jan. 28. Russia banned grain exports in August after the country’s worst drought in a half-century devastated crops. Egyptian Imports Milling wheat for March delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris fell 1 euro, or 0.4 percent, to 265 euros ($361.85) a ton. The Egyptian protests have had no effect on imports of wheat into the country, Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities, said last week. The nation has enough wheat to meet demand for six months, Nomani said. As of Jan. 20, exporters from the U.S. had shipped 2.09 million tons of wheat to Egypt since the current marketing year began June 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Jan. 28. Egypt bought 540,500 tons of Australian wheat in the year to Sept. 30, according to Australian government data. China will have more difficulty feeding itself in coming years as expanding demand spurred by increased urbanization strains resources, Vice Minister of Agriculture Chen Xiaohua said today. March-delivery corn advanced 0.5 percent to $6.4725 a bushel in Chicago. Soybeans for March delivery added 0.5 percent to $14.055 a bushel. To contact the reporters on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net; Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.

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