COUNTRY NEWS
Asia: The region’s feed market is showing increased demand for U.S.-sourced corn as Argentina falls out of competitiveness. For 2018 to date, the U.S. has supplied 42.72 percent of the region’s corn imports versus 39.34 percent for all of 2017. (AgriCensus)
China: Trade sources say that the government made it more difficult for importers to obtain permits for bringing in GMO corn, forcing buyers to go to Ukraine for non-GMO maize. Cherry Zhang of Shanghai JC Intelligence explained that non-GMO corn “doesn’t require the (processing) permit.” The increased demand for Ukrainian corn has pushed that country’s prices to 18-month highs at $181.50/MT. (Reuters; S&P Global Platts)
France: The French export agency FranceAgriMer raised the estimate for barley ending stocks to 1.05 MMT from 925 KMT, and increased the maize ending stock estimate to 2.8 MMT from 2.5 MMT based on a larger harvest and lower exports. (Reuters)