GRAINS-Soybeans slip as ample supply outweighs hopes for China purchases

CANBERRA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures ceded some ground on Thursday, after the previous session's 1.1% rise, when U.S. President Donald Trump said he would talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about China's boycott of U.S. beans.

Wheat futures slipped, while corn inched higher. Prices of all three grains were near multi-week lows due to plentiful global supply.

U.S. farmers have lost out on billions of dollars of sales to China, which is the biggest soy importer but hasn't yet bought beans from the autumn U.S. harvest amid a trade war with Washington.

Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday that soybeans would be a major topic of discussion when he meets Xi in four weeks.

The post spurred some buying but ample supply and China's continued absence from the U.S. market will likely erase the gains, said Andrew Whitelaw, an analyst at consultants Episode 3 in Australia.

"Nothing has changed other than the promise of soybeans being on the agenda," he said.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 was down 0.2% at $10.11 a bushel, as of 0604 GMT. Prices have spent the last year hovering around $10 after falling from highs of nearly $18 in 2022.

Ignoring the U.S., China has ramped up soybean purchases from South America. Traders say it bought around 40 cargoes of Argentine soybeans last week during a brief export tax waiver.

Brokers StoneX said Brazil, which has grown to become the largest soy producer, will likely produce 178.6 million metric tons in the 2025/26 harvest.

In other crops, CBOT corn Cv1 was up 0.1% at $4.16-3/4 a bushel and wheat Wv1 fell 0.2% to $5.08-1/4 a bushel. Like soybeans, both contracts have fallen sharply in the last three years.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's quarterly U.S. grain stocks estimates on Tuesday showed higher corn and wheat inventories than anticipated by analysts, weighing on prices.

In Ukraine, a big grains exporter, the economy ministry increased its projection for the country's winter wheat sowing area by 9%, improving the production outlook.