Country News
Brazil: The Agriculture Ministry said it will ask to suspend a 10 percent tariff on imports of corn from non-Mercosur origins such as the United States due to prices hovering at record levels amid tight supplies. (Reuters)
China: Corn prices continued their slide with the government’s steady release of corn stocks, dropping another $1.50/MT down to an average of $276.50/MT. Meanwhile, Cargill’s Gert-Jan van den Akker said that it is “fifty-fifty” whether China would export its surplus of corn or turn it into ethanol. (Reuters) BMI says that China’s corn production will shift to a huge deficit in the coming years, going from a 5.2 MMT surplus in 2015 to a 6.4 MMT deficit by 2020.
France: The agriculture ministry (FranceAgriMer) reduced its estimate of 2015/16 ending stocks for barley by 31 percent to 1.1 MMT, and cut its estimate of surplus corn stocks by 7.6 percent down to 2.4 MMT. (Reuters)
South Africa: The corn crop is already down 40 percent from last year and now hitting the critical flowering stage. Hopes of importing 1.5 MMT of white corn has turned gloomy due to lack of supply and prices now at $350/MT. (WPI)
Ukraine: Corn planting has begun and area is expected to be 0.5-1.0 million hectares greater than last year due to the abandonment of wheat plantings last fall in a drought. By contrast, wheat and sunflower plantings will reduce corn area in Romania and Bulgaria by 3 percent. (WPI)