NAPERVILLE, (Illinois): Chicago-traded December corn futures hit another calendar-year low on Wednesday, continuing the downward trajectory that has so far unfolded very similarly to 2013.

The uncanny likeness has already been recognized by some market participants, but price is only one of several items that the 2023 US corn market has in common with a decade ago, meaning the 2013 trend could offer a possible path for this year’s prices.

CBOT December corn futures’ high so far in 2023 was printed Jan. 3, the first trading day of the year. That high, of $6.11 per bushel, has drifted down nearly a dollar, bottoming Wednesday at $5.12-1/2. The last time new-crop corn made its calendar-year high in the first session of the year was in 2013, but it has otherwise been rare for the highs to come early in the year.

The annual high in January 2013 is the only one within the last two decades that came in the first three months of the year. Before 2013, new-crop corn last made January highs in 2001 and 1989, the latter somewhat fitting because 1988 and 2012 featured the two worst droughts in recent US history.