SINGAPORE: Global wheat imports are likely to drop this year as slowing economic growth among top buyers, a stronger greenback and higher local cereal output curb grain buying, putting pressure on prices despite world inventories headed for nine-year lows.

Slower purchasing by top importers could put a cap on grain prices by offsetting concerns that unfavourable weather in the Black Sea region, the world’s biggest exporting area, India and the United States will curtail output. Lower Chinese intake, meanwhile, will hurt Australian farmers who have just finished harvesting a near-record crop and had come to rely on........

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