BARLEY/CORN
Unlike Wheat, Chicago May-16 corn futures closed up on the week. The increase is thought to be prices recovering from the previous week’s losses due to the USDA report release and poor US planting conditions.
Corn settled at 361.4 US¢/bu, up 10 US¢/bu for the week.
Argentina’s corn sowings for 2016/17 is forecast to increase to 4.2Mha in light of policy changes. The corn area is expected to have a year-on-year increase of 24%.
The change is due to farmers being more incentivised to plant corn, because of new policies and better returns. The changes in policy include the elimination of export taxes and limitations for corn and wheat. Also with better crop practices, i.e. Crop rotations after years of back to back plantings of soybeans and improved seed technology, yields are expected to be high.
Following on from last month’s announcement of China scrapping its 9 year corn stockpiling scheme, China’s ministry of agriculture is planning on reducing the area planted to corn by 3.3 million ha in favour of increased soybean plantings.
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