Country News
Argentina: Under its “Social Solidarity and Production Reactivation” project, the government issued decree 37/2019 replacing a 4 peso/MT tax (approximately 7 percent) on corn, barley and sorghum exports with a 12 percent levy. Further changes are possible, and the tax is expected to negatively impact grain production. The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange says that recent rains have helped with planting and development of the corn crop. (Infinitiv; AgriCensus)
Brazil: The corn shortage could spike first quarter corn imports to 1.1 MMT. Meanwhile, Chinese government commodities trader Cofco and other companies are looking to expand Brazil’s capacity to convert corn into ethanol. (AgriCensus; Nasdaq)
South Africa: Recent rains have helped farmers get their corn planted. (AgriCensus)
South Korea: MFG bought Black Sea corn for $207.50/MT in a private transaction. FLC also bought corn privately and paid $205.95/MT. (AgriCensus)
Tunisia: ODC issued a tender for February delivery of barley and paid less than in its last tender. (AgriCensus)
Turkey: TMO purchased most of its barley for $200.45/MT from GTCS and Solaria. (AgriCensus)
Ukraine: Grain exports for November were an estimated 5.0 MMT, down 300,000 MT from a month ago. Of that total, 3.1 MMT was corn. (APK-Inform)
Zimbabwe: Tanzania sold 7,000 MT of maize to Zimbabwe and another 83,000 tons are under discussion. There were 17,000 MT shipped in September but these amounts are far short of the 800,000 tons said to be the drought-induced shortfall in the food supply. (Bloomberg)