Country News
Australia: USDA’s forecast for barley production was lowered to 7.4 MMT, which is still 500 KMT greater than ABARES’ estimate. The weather bureau says that equatorial sea surface temperatures have breached a key threshold raising the chances for an El Nino to 70 percent. Rabobank reports that an El Nino is negative for Australia and other southeast Asian crops, and possibly harmful to Brazil’s second corn crop, while providing a helpful moisture boost to the southern U.S. (USDA; AgriCensus)
Brazil: Corn exports during the first half of November at 1.78 MMT were on par with a year earlier. Sales were dented due to the push for moving soybeans out of ports. (AgriCensus)
China: The Ministry of Commerce has commended an anti-dumping investigation into imports of Australian supplied barley. Australia controls about two-thirds of the import market. China purchased 4 MMT of Australian barley in 2017 valued at $1.8 billion but drought has reduced the supplies available this year. China has ample corn to replace feed barley but needs to import quality malting barley for its growing beer demand. The government has approved imports of corn and barley from Kazakhstan, though supplies there are limited. The slaughter of pigs due to ASF hit 600,000 as the disease reached Beijing. (Bloomberg; FarmLead)
EU: The harvesting of maize has been completed in most parts of Europe with some delay in long-cycle varieties in northern Spain due to wet weather conditions. Polish corn production will fall 20 percent in 2018-19 due to drought in key growing areas. Output will be 3.2 MMT versus 4 MMT produced in 2017-18. Ukrainian corn will make up for the deficit. Corn production has been greatly expanding in Poland due to demand from poultry and other countries. (USDA/FAS/GAIN; EU MARS)
Iran: The state grain buying agency SLAL tendered for 200 KMT of feed barley for shipment during December-January. It paid 241.56/MT for 130 KMT during its last international tender. (AgriCensus)
South Africa: SAGIS says that increased domestic use has eased burdensome corn stocks. Meanwhile, drought is delaying planting of the new corn crop. (AgriCensus)
South Korea: NOFI and KOCOPIA tendered for 200 KMT of corn for February-April arrival; MFG bought a cargo of feed corn at $204.30/MT and FLC purchased corn at $203.13/MT for March delivery. (AgriCensus)
Tunisia: The government agency ODC is back in the market for purchasing barley. (AgriCensus)
Turkey: The state grain buying agency TMO bought 75 KMT of barley. (AgriCensus)
Ukraine: The Agrarian Policy Ministry reports that corn production reached a record 34.8 MMT, boosted by higher yields. However, deliveries are facing seasonal logistics hurdles and may force defaults. (World-Grain)
Vietnam: Corn imports will set a record in CY 2018 as they had already reached 7.4 MMT after three-quarters of the year. Regional sources dismiss the theory that the cause is transshipments to China, saying that livestock expansion is sufficient to explain the domestic demand. (AgriCensus)