Country News
Argentina: Farmers will plant corn on 4.5 million hectares for 2016/17, up 25 percent from the 3.6 million hectares planted in 2015/16, according to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange. (Reuters)
China: Buyers took about 12 percent of the corn offered for sale out of government stocks this past week at prices roughly 27 percent below acquisition costs. However, with world prices continuing to fall, auctions prices will have to follow in order to shed inventory. (Bloomberg)
EU: Craft breweries in the U.S. are expanding at 20 percent per year and they use three times as much malt as conventional breweries. This is driving increased U.S. imports of malt from Europe. (Bloomberg)
Jordan: The government is tendering once more (closes August 24) for 100,000 of feed grade barley. The imposition of new quality and financing requirements stymied earlier purchase attempts. (Reuters)