A group of European Union countries urged the bloc to act to help alleviate the oversupply of grain as cheap imports from Ukraine flood markets in neighboring countries, cutting demand for local produce and triggering protests from farmers. Six east European nations led by Poland called for measures including compensation for farmers at a meeting of the bloc’s agriculture ministers on Monday.

World wheat prices fell in January for the third consecutive month as global supply levels continued to improve. Recent harvests in Australia, where latest estimates are now higher than initially expected, and in Argentina along with a weaker national currency, were behind a decline in the Australia (eastern states) and Argentina quotations, which fell by 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively, month‐on‐month.

Egypt has set its wheat procurement price at 1,250 Egyptian pounds ($42.23) per ardeb (150 kilograms) for the 2023 local procurement season, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said.

The new price is more than 40% higher than last season's procurement price of 865-885 Egyptian pounds, depending on purity levels, which drew complaints from some farmers, and 25% above the initial price it set in August.

Australia wheat production is expected to rise to a record 42 million tonnes as results from the final phase of harvest show higher yields in the world’s second-largest exporter of the grain, traders and an analyst said.