Futures Close Report: 12th Sept 2017
The U.S. Agriculture Department unexpectedly raised its U.S. corn and soybean harvest forecasts on Tuesday, adding further bearish pressure to a market already well supplied globally.
- US. corn production in the 2017/18 crop year will total 14.184 billion bushels, based on an average yield of 169.9 bushels per acre (169.5 bpa est last month);
- US Soybean production in the 2107/18 crop year will total 4.431 billion bushels of soybeans, based on an average yield of 49.9 bushels per acre. (49.4 Bpa est last month);
- world wheat ending stocks forecasts lower for 2017/18 to 263.14 million tonnes, from 264.69 million in August.
The Australian government on Tuesday lowered its estimate of the country’s 2017/2018 wheat crop to 21.64 million tonnes, an eight-year low, from a March forecast of 23.98 million.
Argentina Soybean plantings – above average levels of humidity now affect 4.8 million hectares, or 28% of Buenos Aires’s viable production area, according to farm group Carbap. Moisture has been accumulating since early in the year. Some forecasters stating that it could halve the production potential for what is the largest production area in Argentina.
Conab, Brazil’s agricultural statistics and food supply agency, forecast the country’s 2016/17 soybean crop at 114 million tonnes, unchanged from its estimate last month. It revised its total corn estimate for the current season to 97.71 million tonnes from the 97.2 million tonnes predicted last month. Brazil’s total grain crop is expected to reach 238.7 million tonnes, 28% more than in the previous season due to good climatic conditions and productivity improvements.
