Country News
China: USDA has announced that China has made its first purchase of U.S. corn in two months, according to Reuters. Total Chinese purchases this year of U.S. corn now total some 4 MMT with 1.392 MMT having already been shipped.
Japan: The Ministry of Agriculture has announced that it received no bids in its weekly tender for the importation of feed barley and wheat, reports Reuters. It had sought 120,000 MT of feed wheat and 200,000 MT of barley and will seek the same in a tender closing on March 26.
South Africa: Yellow corn prices rose by 1.2 percent to 204.21/MT as the rand weakened against the dollar, according to Bloomberg News.
Ukraine: Continued political unrest is having a negative impact on Ukrainian small grain traders who are struggling to get financing from local banks, reports to Reuters. These traders are being forced to seek loans from larger, international trading houses. This credit crunch has the potential in a worst-case scenario to reduce Ukraine’s corn crop by 20 MMT (a third of the predicted total) as farmers are having difficulties in procuring funds to buy seed. Tensions and Russia’s effective annexation of Crimea have also caused the Ukrainian hryvnia to weaken.