SINGAPORE: Chicago corn and soybean futures rose on Tuesday after a US government report showed that condition of both crops suffered amid hot and dry weather, with prices recovering from last session’s losses.
Wheat rose for the first time in five sessions as uncertainty over supplies from the Black Sea region underpinned prices.
“There are forecasts of improved weather for the US Midwest but there could be yield losses from heat the crop has already suffered in the last few weeks,” said one Singapore-based trader.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.2% at $5.14 a bushel, as of 0339 GMT, soybeans added 0.6% to $13.39-1/2 a bushel. Wheat climbed 0.8% to $6.70-3/4 a bushel. Good-to-excellent ratings for the US corn, soybean and spring wheat crops fell by more than expected in the past week as temperatures across the Midwest soared to the hottest of the summer.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rated the US corn crop at 55% good-to-excellent, down two percentage points from a week prior, while pegging the soybean crop at 52%, also down two percentage points.
Spring wheat, the bulk of which is grown in North Dakota, suffered the most, with good-to-excellent ratings dropping to 42% from 48% a week earlier. However, cooler temperatures and increased rain forecasts are expected to bolster crop development.
South Korea’s NOFI tenders to buy 138,000MT of corn
The USDA reported sales of 132,000 metric tons of US soybeans to China for shipment in the 2023/24 season.
The agency also reported sales of 183,300 metric tons of soymeal to the Philippines.
Export prices for Russian wheat maintained levels last week after spiking a week earlier due to Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal, analysts said.
Russia pulled out of the UN-backed deal that had allowed the safe export via the Black Sea of Ukrainian grain, after complaining for months that conditions for its extension had not been fulfilled. Brazilian farmers had harvested 55% of the area planted for their second corn crop in the center-south region by the end of last Thursday, consultancy AgRural said on Monday, up 8 percentage points from the previous week.
Work in the fields still lags the previous season, the consultancy’s statement added, when at the same time 73% of Brazilian corn fields had been reaped.
Commodity funds were net sellers of CBOT soybeans, wheat, corn, soyoil and soymeal futures contracts on Monday, traders said.