Country News
Argentina: FOB Upriver corn prices hit multi-year lows on supply/demand woes as river shipments remain constrained. The Parana River is at its lowest level in 50 years and ships are running aground. Relief will not arrive until September or October. (AgriCensus; Reuters)
Brazil: Agroconsult revised its estimate for the 2019/20 safrinha corn crop downward by 3 MMT to 71.7 MMT due to drought induced lower yields. China state grain trader COFCO says it will switch the Santos port terminal from moving corn to sugar and use a third-party infrastructure for its corn export program. (Refinitiv; Successful Farming)
EU: Due to dry weather, MARS lowered its forecast for barley production by 8 percent. FranceAgriMer lowered France’s barley quality rating to 51 percent G/E for the winter crop and 62 percent for the spring crop. These are significant reductions compared to last year’s crops. Weaker demand for malting barley has pushed French prices to their lowest since 2015 and exports as feed barley are challenged by cheap corn. Consequently, inventories will rise 14 percent year over year to 6.6 MMT. (FarmLead)
Philippines: The SMC unit of San Miguel Corp. has ramped up its purchasing of corn from farmers as a contribution toward battling the COVID crisis. (PhilStar Global)
South Africa: The 2020 maize crop will be 38 percent larger than last year based on favorable weather conditions says the government’s Crop Estimates Committee. Output will rise from 11.275 MMT last year to 15.589 MMT this year, a 2.4 percent increase over last month’s estimate. (AgriCensus)
Syria: The government will sell 100 KMT of feed barley via a tender. (AgriCensus)
Ukraine: The grain traders union UGA says the 2020 corn harvest could reach a record 37 MMT. (Reuters)