Wheat prices soared to a record on Thursday after Canada chopped its forecast for this year’s harvest to 20.322m tonnes, down 19.6 per cent from last year, and significantly below market expectations.

In Chicago, CBOT September wheat increased 7½ cents to $7.26 a bushel while the more actively traded December contract rose 8¼ cents to $7.40 a bushel after hitting a record $7.54 earlier in the session. The previous record of $7.50 a bushel was set in 1996.