Country News
Argentina: The greater Rosario market price for corn and soybean prices rose after presidential candidate Mauricio Macri forced the ruling party’s candidate, Daniel Scioli, into a runoff. Macri promises to remove taxes and restrictions on the agricultural sector. (La Nacion)
Brazil: Farmers have forward sold a large portion (30 percent) of their second crop corn, which indicates that second crop corn planted area will increase by 13 percent to 27 million acres. The dramatic devaluation of the Brazilian real is driving farmer confidence that the market will absorb more corn. Overall corn production for 2015/16 will be up 3.5 percent as Brazil becomes the world’s second largest exporter. (DTN)
China: Ethanol imports in September hit an all-time high of 32 million gallons. The U.S. captured 34 percent of sales while Brazil grabbed 39 percent. At this pace, China could overtake Japan as the number one ethanol importer in Asia. (Biofuels Digest)
Europe: The expectations for EU corn imports this marketing year have yo-yoed. Europe imported 9 MMT of corn last year and when this year’s crop looked to be down by 15-17 MMT, imports were expected to rise by 25 MMT – especially after pasture and grasslands were hurt by drought. However, a bumper wheat crop has changed expectations as more of that crop goes into feed. USDA still projects the EU will import 16 MMT but 11-12 MMT is the view in Europe. One offsetting factor is the Ukraine where wheat production will be down from last year by around 20 percent, which means there won’t be 3 MMT in exports to the EU. (The Fryer Report)
South Africa: The government’s Crop Estimates Committee says that the smallest corn crop since 2011 will be planted in South Africa in 2016 due to the drought. Meanwhile, the country’s output of malting barley is expected to be unchanged at 347,017 tons. (Bloomberg)