Futures Close Report  31st  May

Argentine soybean yields dropped to 2.23 tonnes per hectare as harvesting expanded into areas hardest hit by a four-month drought that ended in April,  Harvest is reported at 89% complete and the Buenas Aires grains exchanged kept their forecast for final season total unchanged at 36 million tonnes.

Ukraine reduced their winter wheat forecast to 24 million tonnes (Last year 25.4 million tonnes) owing to the impact of dry conditions – this equates to a yield of 3.8 tonnes per hectare against last years 4.1 tonnes.

The United States proceeded with steel and aluminium tariffs despite earlier talks of possible exemptions. Unless the issue is resolved quickly, the impact on U.S. agriculture could worsen, Canada and Mexico were the Nos. 1 and 3 importers of U.S. agricultural products by value in 2017, respectively.  So far, sales of U.S. corn and soybeans to Mexico for the 2017/18 marketing year have been strong, despite fears  of tariff impact. Mexico’s year-to-date (through May 17) purchases of U.S. corn for 2017/18 total 13.4 million tonnes, some 6 percent more than last year. Soybean purchases for delivery in the current marketing year are  21 percent up on last year at a record 4.2 million tonnes.