Wheat futures slipped more than 1% on Tuesday after the US government’s assessment of farmers’ crops were better than what analysts expected. Wheat prices enjoyed a 5% gain in March during the coronavirus pandemic, but they are still in the red so far this year. Can the agricultural commodity stage a comeback and repeat last year’s tremendous gains?

May wheat futures tumbled $0.0725, or 1.3%, to $5.485 per bushel at 17:24 GMT on Tuesday on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT). Wheat has fallen more than 3% in recent sessions, adding to its year-to-date slump of 2%.

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), 62% of US winter wheat crops were in good-to-excellent conditions, up from 60% the same time a year ago. Analysts had penciled in a reading of 56%. This is the USDA’s first weekly crop rating report for 2020.

Last month, wheat prices were supported by a myriad of factors. One of them was the massive levels of consumption by consumers as nations instituted stay-at-home orders, leaving millions of people at home and stocked up with bread. The other issue is that wheat-rich nations, including Russia and Ukraine, are imposing export restrictions and shoring up domestic inventories.

Ukraine confirmed that it had already exported 17.9 million tons of wheat for the 2019-2020 marketing season, plus another 2.3 million tons would be available by the end of the year. The country harvested 28.3 million tons of wheat last year, and domestic purchases topped eight million tons.

Russia has introduced a seven-million-ton limit on grain exports for the remainder of the marketing year, which ends in June. Kazakhstan is also capping its shipments.

But the demand is beginning to rise with China, Egypt, and Libya forecast to be in the market for millions of tons of wheat.

For now, there is yet to be a massive selloff because the crop year is still early, and a lot could transpire before the harvests begin in the summer.

In other agricultural commodities, May corn futures picked up $0.04, or 1.22%, to $3.3175 a pound. May soybean futures edged up $0.005, or 0.06%, to $8.56 a bushel. May orange juice futures plummeted $0.0365, or 3.33%, to $1.0585 per pound.