By
The USDA in its monthly supply/demand report pegged the closely watched stocks-to-use ratio at 9.0 for the 2017/18 year that begins Oct. 1. That was up from June's outlook of 8.8 but still down sharply from 11.4 in the current crop year.
The forecast for domestic production for 2017/18 was unchanged at 8.74 million tons (7.93 million tonnes) and down from 2016/17's bumper output of 8.84 million tons.
Projected imports from Mexico in 2017/18 were raised to 1.82 million tons, up from June's forecast of 1.77 million and from the current year's exports of 1.16 million tons.