According to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. producers will plant an estimated 89 million acres (36 million hectares) of corn this year, down 1.8 percent from 2014/2015’s plantings of 90.6 million acres (36.6 million hectares).

Despite this decrease, a recent report on the world coarse grains market from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Office of Global Analysis raised its estimate of world corn production by 3.2 million metric tons (126 million bushels) due to better-than-expected production by Ukraine, Argentina, India and other countries.

Ukraine’s bumper harvest stands as second highest on record. USDA estimates Ukraine corn production for 2014/2015 at 28.5 million tons (1.1 billion bushels), up 1.45 million tons (57 million bushels) from last month and second only to last year’s record output of 30.9 million tons (1.2 million bushels).

Argentina’s corn crop is forecast at 23 million tons (905 million bushels), a 4.5 percent increase from last month but a 12 percent drop from last year. Good rains continue to move through Brazil and Argentina, keeping production estimates firm for this year’s crops and early harvest. 

The Indian corn crop is estimated to be up by 500,000 tons (19 million bushels), with total production of 22.5 million tons (885 million bushels), the second largest on record. 

With corn production on the rise around the world, USDA believes farmers – and buyers – will continue to see declining prices for the coming U.S. crop, with an estimated average corn price per bushel of just $3.50 in the 2015/2016 marketing year.