India has sold around 100,000 tonnes of corn to Indonesia in recent deals, which traders said were the biggest sales to the Southeast Asian nation from India in at least two years. "Indonesia is hot at the moment, there is good demand for Indian corn," said one Singapore-based trader who sells feed grains to Asia.
"Indonesia has taken 100,000 tonnes from India since they started buying in the last three to four weeks." In one of the latest deals signed last week, Indonesian feed mills bought 10,000 tonnes of Indian corn at $312 a tonne, including cost and freight. The deals which started a few weeks ago were signed between $290 and $315 a tonne, C&F.
Another Singapore-based trader said vessels to load some 70,000 tonnes of corn were lined up at Kakinada port in southern India for Indonesia. "I haven't seen a lineup of ships like this and such volumes in a short period in at least two years," he said, adding one of his vessels was waiting to load 14,000 tonnes of the grain. Indonesia has estimated corn production at 17.93 million tonnes this year, down 2 percent from last year, according to a forecast issued by its statistics bureau.
The country expects to import more than 2 million tonnes of corn this year, up from an estimated 1.5 million tonnes in 2010, the chairman of the Indonesian Feed Mill Association has said. A number of corn-producing areas in Indonesia have suffered from failed harvests because of bad weather, while rising animal feed production is boosting corn demand. On Thursday, Indian corn was quoted around $320 a tonne, C&F to Southeast Asia compared with South American cargoes being offered around $350 a tonne, traders said.