■ A wet spring is good news for Canadian wheat farmers, with wheat acerage expected to rise 8.7 per cent.

A soggy start to spring in parts of Canada may be good news for wheat supplies.

Wheat acres will rise 8.7 per cent to 25.4 million acres, the highest level in a decade, Statistics Canada said Tuesday in a report. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey expected 24.7 million. High prices and heavy rainfall in parts of the eastern Prairies may have spurred farmers to shift acres to cereal crops.

“The acreage number along with average to trend yields will replenish global wheat supplies,” Jerry Klassen, an independent trader and market analyst in Winnipeg, said before the report’s release. “The Canadian wheat crop will offset a larger portion of the shortfall from Ukraine.”