India's export ban sends EU wheat to near all-time highs

European wheat soared to near all-time highs on Monday after India said it was closing its doors on wheat exports to cool local prices and ensure its supplies as a scorching heatwave curtailed output.

Benchmark September milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext was up 5.9% at 441.25 euros ($459.43) a tonne by 1550 GMT after touching 443.25 euros in earlier trade, not far from the all-time high for a front-month contract of 450 euros a tonne briefly hit in early March.

Most traded wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade was also 5.9% higher, trading at its daily limit.

India banned wheat exports on Saturday as a heatwave curtailed output and domestic prices soared, marking a policy U-turn after the government maintained just days earlier it was still targeting record exports of 10 million tonnes that would help compensate for Ukraine's reduced supply. 

Concerns about ongoing dry weather in France, expected to have negative effects on winter grain yields, and in the United States were also supporting prices. 

Many parts of France, the European Union's largest grain grower and exporter, experienced rainstorms in the night to Monday but these were not sufficient, the head of France's largest farm union said. 

Crop data released on Friday showed conditions for French wheat and barley crops had declined as dry weather persisted. 

"The EU and U.S. have suffered from adverse crop conditions. Other origins are too small to move the needle. The biggest wheat importers are going to be more and more dependent on wheat from Russia, with all the uncertainty that entails," said Carlos Mera, head of agri commodities research at Rabobank.