Country News
France: The condition of French corn and spring barley have been hard hit by persistent dry weather, reports Reuters. The good/excellent score for barley has fallen by seven points in the last week to total 66 percent, with an overall decline of 17 points over the past month. The corn score has fallen by 10 points in the last week to now total 71 percent good/excellent, with an overall monthly decline of 13 points. The winter barley harvest was reported as 85 percent complete on July 6, with initial results indicating a good harvest largely unaffected by the hot and dry weather plaguing the country. French corn stocks remain high at 3.3 MMT in spite of recent exports within the EU.
South Africa: Africa’s largest producer imported 79,850 MT of corn from Argentina since April, according to Bloomberg News. Reuters further reports that South Africa intends to import another 50,000 MT of white corn from Mexico. The price of yellow corn has risen by 26 percent in 2015.
Ukraine: Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko has stated that Ukraine might be forced to reduce its forecast for the 2015 grain harvest if hot weather continues, according to Reuters. An earlier June forecast projected Ukrainian farmers could harvest 60 MMT of grain with predicted exports at 34 MMT, however the minister has indicated that another week of hot weather could negatively impact late corn maturation and force a reduction. Further, the grain harvest has begun in most of the country and so far farmers have harvested 450,000 hectares of barley.