World wheat area for 2018-19 will shrink fractionally to a five-year low, helped by a further drop in US seedings, the International Grains Council said, while seeing growth in Argentine and Canadian seedings. Global wheat area for 2018-19, on a harvested basis, will decline by come in at 219.4m acres, a drop of 600,000 acres year on year, the council said in its first detailed forecast for next season. The forecast decline reflected in part a small drop, of some 300,000 hectares, in area in Russia, whose output prospects are being particularly closely watched after the country’s record harvest this year, which is expected to promote it to the world’s biggest wheat exporter for 2017-18.