Argentine wheat flexed its muscle as tough price competitor on international markets by extending to more than $3 a tonne its discount to the cheapest supplies that the Black Sea could offer.

Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, stuck with Black Sea wheat supplies at its latest tender, the third in a week, buying 180,000 tonnes of Russian and Ukrainian grain.

However, other countries answered a signal by Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (Gasc), for price-competitive supplies from outside the former Soviet Union which, as export bans, quotas and tariffs in recent months have highlighted, attracts concerns over the stability of its supplies.

And Argentine wheat proved - at the $244.67 a tonne offer by commodities house Glencore - cheaper than any other offers, losing out to Russia and Ukraine because of shipping costs higher by some $28 a tonne.

'Available and cheap' 

"You don't get the feeling that Argentine wheat is ever going to win in Egypt in the current market, with that huge handicap in shipping costs," a UK grain trader told Agrimoney.com.

"But it is advertising that it is available and cheap. That may be wise, to get buyers signed up in good time, when Australia is at the start of harvest, and expecting a big one."

Wheat from Australia, Argentina's southern hemisphere rival in wheat exports, was also offered, but at $262 a tonne, making it more than $17 a tonne more expensive.

However, Argentine wheat too comes with a supply risk, of delays by strikes, the latest a truck workers' protest settled on Monday.

'More than currency moves'

French wheat followed Argentine supplies in improving its competitiveness, bid as low as $259.90 a tonne by Granit, $9 a tonne below the cheapest offer from this origin made at the last tender, announced on Saturday.

That left French wheat with a further $13 a tonne to cut before undercutting Russian supplies.

"There is no getting away from the fact that despite a weakening Euro, down 4-5 cents versus the US dollar this last week, European wheat will need a lot more than currency moves to seriously position itself on a competitive footing against Russian and Ukrainian sales," Jaime Nolan Miralles at INTL FCStone said.

A weaker euro makes eurozone exports cheaper to buyers in other currencies.

On the Paris futures market, November milling wheat stood 0.4% higher at E187.75 a tonne higher in late deals, encouraged by further weakness in the euro against the dollar.