Grain Highlights 23.01.2021

23 Jan, 2021
Grain Highlights 23.01.2021
According to the forecast of IHS Markit Agribusiness (formerly IEG Vantage), the area planted with ​​corn in the US will reach 38.1 million hectares in 2021, which is 1.3 million hectares higher than the December estimate. Areas planted with corn were 36.8 million hectares in 2020.

- As of January 20, 2021, 98.6% of the planned soybean areas or 17.2 million hectares have been planted in Argentina, according to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange. Drought can be seen in 13% of the soybean areas, which is 19% less than the previous week. 21% of the crops are in good and excellent condition (18%), 69% in fair condition (63%) and 10% in poor condition (19%). In the previous season, 59% of the crops were in good and excellent condition, and less than 1% in poor condition.

- SovEcon has raised its forecast for the wheat production in Russia in 2021 from 76.8 million tons to 77.7 million tons. The change is due to the precipitation and the sufficient snow cover during the cold days of January. However, the condition of the crops remains the worst for the last 10 years.

- During the period of September-December 2020, 148,900 tons of sunseed were exported from Ukraine (10.5 times higher compared to the previous year), including exports for Bulgaria of 101,900 tons and exports for Turkey of 29,825 tons.

- According to the forecast of IHS Markit Agribusiness (formerly IEG Vantage), the area planted with ​​corn in the US will reach 38.1 million hectares in 2021, which is 1.3 million hectares higher than the December estimate. Areas planted with corn were 36.8 million hectares in 2020. The forecast for the corn production has been increased by 12.7 million tons to a total of 397.7 million tons compared to 360.3 million tons in 2020. The areas planted with wheat will be 18.3 million hectares compared to 17.9 million hectares in 2020. Areas planted with soybeans are projected at 36.5 million hectares (33.6 ). The soybean production is expected to reach 126.2 million tons (+1.1 million tons and +13.7 million tons).

- On Thursday, commodity funds in Chicago were net buyers of corn (+5,000) and soybean (+2,000) and net sellers of wheat (-7,000).

- According to Statistics Canada, in the week of January 11-17, canola exports from Canada reached 381,000 tons compared to 190,000 tons a week earlier. However, there was a decrease in other exports:

  • wheat-  -281,100 tons (-37%)
  • durum-   -38,600 tons (-22%)
  • barley-   -62,400 tons (-58%)

The total export of cereals and oilseeds was 945,900 tons (-12%) and since the beginning of the season it reaches 26.44 million tons (19.6).

- Tunisia bought:

  • wheat- 92,000 tons at a price of 314.98 - 321.68 USD/ton
  • durum- 92,000 tons at a price of 387.29 - 387.99 USD/ton
  • barley- 100,000 tons at a price of 285.81 - 287.98 USD/ton

All deliveries will be made in the period February - March.

- Turkey has bought 400,000 tons of wheat at prices of 301.9 - 312.3 USD/ton C&F.

- According to the MPOB, Malaysia exported 1.9 million tons of palm oil to Europe for the period of Jan-Nov 2020. This is 6.11% lower than the previous year (2.02 million tons). These included exports to:

  • the Netherlands- 994,580 tons (+ 21.4%)
  • Italy- 415,180 tons (+8.3%) 
  • Spain- 179,760 tons (-59.9%)
  • Sweden- 95,160 tons (+1.48%)
  • Ukraine- 49,380 tons to (+46.53%)

Palm oil exports to the EU have been increasing since Q2 2020 and this trend is expected to remain in 2021.