Futures Close Report 23rd July

• Crop Condition – USDA
  • US Corn Reported 72% good / excellent unchanged from last week  (62% last year);
  • US Soybeans reported 70% good / excellent, up from 69% last week (57% last year);
  • US Winter wheat 80% harvested – spring wheats reported 79% good / excellent.

The European Union’s crop monitoring service, MARS, cut its forecast of EU 2018 winter crop yields again on Monday, citing exceptionally dry and hot weather in north and central Europe with little relief in sight.  MARS estimated the EU 2018 yield for soft wheat, the most produced cereal within the EU, at 5.82 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), down from 6.04 t/ha last month. This was now 4.9 percent below 2017 and 2.6 percent under the five-year average.

UkrAgroConsult on Tuesday cut its forecast for Ukraine’s 2018/19 crop year wheat harvest and exports due to a severe drought across the country during spring and the first half of summer. The agriculture consultancy reduced its wheat harvest forecast by 3.1 percent to 24.7 million tonnes, and exports to 15.5 million tonnes from 16 million tonnes forecast in June.  The consultancy, however, raised its forecast for this year’s maize harvest to 27.3 million tonnes from the previous estimate of 26.6 million tonnes. The 2018/19 maize exports forecast remained unchanged at 21 million tonnes.