* Soybeans, corn drop over 1% on Friday on improved weather
* Wheat down, although decline limited by Russian export
duty
SINGAPORE, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures
dropped almost 2% on Friday, with the market poised for its
first weekly decline in more than a month, as rains in South
American key growing areas improved crop yield prospects and
assuaged worries about global supply.
Corn and wheat prices dropped more than 1%, with both
markets also set for weekly loss.
"Grain and soybean markets are reversing some of the bullish
trend seen in recent weeks," said one Singapore-based trader at
an international trading company.
The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) most-active soybean
contract nearly 5% this week, after closing firmer for the
last five weeks. The market was down 1.8% at $13.46-1/4 a
bushel, as of 0316 GMT.
Corn dropped 2.5% so far this week, its first decline
in seven weeks, and wheat lost 3.4% this week after ending
the previous week on a positive note.
Argentine soybean and corn planting sped forward over the
last week, helped by rain that moistened fields parched by
months of dry weather, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on
Thursday.
More moisture was needed over the short term to ensure good
yields for the 2020/21 crop, the exchange said in a report.
Losses in soybean market were limited by private sales of
136,000 tonnes of U.S. cargoes to China and 163,290 tonnes to
Mexico, both for shipment in the 2020/21 season, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Corn also benefited from export sales, as the USDA reported
private sales of 336,500 tonnes of the U.S. corn to unknown
destinations for shipment in the 2020/21 season.
Ukrainian milling wheat export prices exceeded $300 per
tonne on Wednesday, supported by a sharp upward trend in Russia,
analyst APK-Inform said on Thursday.
Russia said the country's wheat export prices rose sharply
last week ahead of a new export tax imposed by one of the
world's largest wheat exporters from mid-February.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, soyoil and
soybean futures contracts on Thursday and net sellers of soymeal
and wheat futures contracts, traders said.
(Reporting by Naveen Thukral, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)