GRAINS-Wheat slips towards 5-year lows as Russia steps up exports

(Adds analyst comment, updates prices) CANBERRA, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Chicago wheat futures slipped for a third consecutive session on Wednesday as top exporter Russia stepped up the pace of its exports amid abundant global supply. Soybeans also edged lower and corn futures were flat, with large U.S. harvests in full swing and a rise in the dollar to its strongest against a basket of major currencies since early August making U.S. commodities costlier for importers. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.1% at $5.06-1/4 a bushel at 0141 GMT. CBOT wheat has fallen more than 1.5% so far this week and is nearing a 5-year low of $5.00-3/4 reached in August. Russian analysts expect the country's exports to accelerate. Consultants Sovecon raised their estimate of September wheat exports by 0.3 million metric tons to 4.6 million tons and forecast shipment of 5 million tons in October. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev estimated this year's wheat harvest at 88 million tons, the latest in a series of large crops. Good rainfall in large parts of the Black Sea region underscored the prevalence of crop-friendly weather across many of the world's big wheat exporting nations this year. Following large Northern Hemisphere production, upcoming harvests in Southern Hemisphere exporters Argentina and Australia now look better than initially expected, said Dennis Voznesenski, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank in Sydney. "Our forecast is for CBOT prices to stay slightly above $5," he said. "But I see no significant upside for time being." In other crops, CBOT corn unchanged at $4.19-3/4 a bushel and soybeans were 0.1% lower at $10.21-1/4 a bushel. Argentina's government said it had ordered workers' unions to suspend plans for an indefinite strike over wages at processing plants. The U.S. government is expected to announce this week a U.S. farmer bailout plan worth as much as $15 billion, as China continues to boycott U.S. soybeans amid trade tensions. (Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

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