European wheat futures declined on Monday as traders assessed the 'impact of Ukrainian and Russian strikes?on ports, shipping and grain terminals. Major grain export terminals from?the countries escaped major damage. The price of 'September' milling wheat at the Paris-based Euronext was down by 0.7% to EUR231 ($262.65 per metric ton) at 1443 GMT, after fluctuating between positive and negative territory during afternoon trade. The sharp drop in crude oil of around 6%, after U.S. and Iran suspended their strikes at the weekend following two weeks of attacks, also affected grains prices. A fall in Chicago Wheat also contributed to Euronext's weakness. Euronext fell sharply Friday after reports that Ukraine was discussing ways to keep vessels moving through their major export ports. This sparked hopes that Ukrainian grain exports could avoid a major disruption due to Russian missile and drone attacks. Ukraine denied the report.

Russian and Ukrainian attacks continued on the weekend. Traders were relieved that Ukraine did not strike the massive grain export terminals in Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, and that the wheat export ports from both countries appeared unharmed.

One trader said: "Russia's port grain terminals weren't generally affected, which is a?great?relief. However, there are concerns that the logistics chain feeding these terminals may have been disrupted." This may cause Russian exports to slow and wheat prices to rise.

In Germany and other countries, traders also observed rapid progress of EU wheat harvests due to mostly dry weather.

Dryness on the Rhine in Germany also meant that water levels were falling, which made it difficult for vessels to carry full loads of grain.

(source: Reuters)