Country News
Australia: No agricultural products had been shipped out of Western Australia’s remote Ord Stage port since 2008, but now for the second year in a row a shipment of 11 KMT of corn is being exported to South Korea. The hope is to get it up to three shipments a year but at this juncture the area is only producing 15 KMT. (ABC Rural)
Brazil: The grain agency Conab purchased 86 percent of the nearly one million tons of corn it tendered to buy. The agency purchases corn to prop up prices and then sells it back into the market when prices are higher. Other programs like PEP and Pepro subsidize corn freight or subsidize to even out price differences between regions. (Platts)
China: Imported corn is 16 percent cheaper than domestically delivered product in Guangdong and the 700,000 tons of corn reported to have recently been purchased from the U.S. could signal more imports ahead. The U.S. and Ukraine compete for the market, and the spread between futures prices in China and Chicago indicate that traders do not think much of the quality of the surplus corn supply in China. (Reuters)
Naomi Blohm of Stewart-Peterson says that China going from the current 20 percent of their automobile fleet using ethanol to the goal of 100 percent will require an additional billion bushels (25 MMT) of corn each year. Bohm also cites reports that 70 percent of China’s current corn stocks aren’t usable. (AgDay)
Venezuela: Corn production has fallen by more than half over the past decade as government price controls have discouraged farmers from planting fields. Sorghum production has mostly disappeared. (Bloomberg)