Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures dropped 1.8 per cent to a six-week low on Tuesday, pressured by a government report that farmers have made good progress in their much delayed planting tasks during the past week, traders said.
“This is likely to ease previous concerns that the delays to planting could lead to yield shortfalls or even a last-minute switch to soybeans,” Commerzbank said.
Wheat futures also dropped sharply after Analyst APK-Inform raised its forecasts for Ukraine’s 2022-23 grain crop and exports because of a better-than-expected winter harvest.
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Soybean futures ended firm after trading both sides of unchanged, with the market underpinned by concerns that planting remained slow in northern production areas. The good planting progress in corn also lowered the likelihood that some farmers would boost their soybean acreage, traders said.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday that 72 per cent of the U.S. corn crop had been seeded as of May 22, near the high end of expectations and up from 49 per cent in the prior week.
“Give the American farmer a chance and he will get the grain in the ground,” said Mark Gold, managing partner at Top Third Ag Marketing. “He has always done it and he always will do it.”
CBOT July corn futures settled down 14-1/2 cents at $7.71-3/4 a bushel (all figures US$). Prices bottomed out at $7.62, the lowest for the most-active contract since April 11.
Corn faced additional pressure from prospects for rising export competition.
China’s customs authority has signed an agreement with Brazil to allow imports of Brazilian corn, China’s ministry of commerce said, as the governments of both nations seek to boost trade ties.
CBOT July soft red winter wheat was down 35-1/4 cents at $11.54-3/4 a bushel, notching its fourth losing session out of the last five.
CBOT July soybeans gained six cents to $16.93 a bushel.
— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai.
