Country News
Argentina: The world’s third-largest corn exporter approved 16 MMT of corn for export for the 2013/14 crop year, according to Reuters. This is 1 MMT more than was authorized for export in the 2012/13 crop year and is expected to spur August planting. Argentina generally caps export sales to ensure sufficient domestic supplies in order to keep prices down in the country’s inflationplagued economy.
Canada: Monsanto has announced that it will invest $100 billion over the next decade on developing corn for planting in Western Canada, reports Reuters. Western Canada, while a fertile farming region, has traditionally been better suited to the production of wheat and canola. Monsanto has stated that its intention is to develop corn that matures earlier than contemporary breeds, which would allow corn to be planted on some 26 million additional acres in Canada. After taking crop rotations into account, Monsanto has indicated that corn may be annually planted on 8-10 million acres of Western Canada by 2025. Currently corn in Western Canada is only planted on 300,000-400,000 acres in southern Manitoba.
South Africa: Yellow corn for September delivery on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg has decreased by 1.3 percent to $233.89.MT, while white corn fell 0.9 percent to $233.51/MT, reports Bloomberg News.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Both the Kenyan and Ugandan governments have announced that they will make two drought-resistant non-GMO breeds of corn available for purchase domestically in late 2013 or early in 2014, according to WPI. This decision was made with the hope that it would improve the average corn yields in both countries. Kenya currently averages 2.3 MT/hectare, while Uganda averages 1.5 MT/hectare, which is well below averages seen in major corn producing countries like South Africa. Local corn research scientists have also indicated that eight or more higher-yielding corn strains are also in development