It can be sourced from optional origins for arrival in South Korea around Jan. 1, 2020. The corn was expected to be sourced either from the United States or South America, they said.

It was bought at $207.50 a tonne c&f plus an extra $1.00 surcharge for additional port unloading.

The seller was believed to be trading house Glencore.

Shipment was sought in the tender between Nov. 19 and Dec. 18 if sourced from the US Pacific Northwest coast, between Oct. 30 and Nov. 28 if sourced from the US Gulf or eastern Europe, between Oct. 25 and Nov. 23 if from South America and between Nov. 4 and Dec. 3 if from South Africa.

A series of South Korean corn purchases took place this week totalling almost 200,000 tonnes as importers took advantage of falling prices. NOFI itself bought 65,000 tonnes on Wednesday.

South Korean corn purchasing in global markets was quiet in July after prices rose, hitting a 5-year high on July 15 on concerns about poor weather stressing the US crop.

But Chicago corn futures fell to their lowest since May on Thursday on more favourable weather outlooks for US crops, and as new US tariffs on Chinese goods indicated the US/China trade war is far from being solved.