Grain Highlights 30.01.2021

30 Jan, 2021
Grain Highlights 30.01.2021
Due to less rainfall, Buenos Aires Grain Exchange has lowered its forecast for the soybean production in Argentina by 0.5 million tons to a total of 46 million tons (49 million tons in 2019/20).

- In the week of Jan 14-21, China bought 130,000 tons of wheat from the United States, which is twice as much as the previous week. Since the beginning of the season, purchases have reached 2.6 million tons, which is the highest level for the last 7 years. 1.75 million tons of this have already been delivered. The USDA expects wheat imports to China of 9 million tons (+67.3%) for 2020/21.

- On Thursday, funds in Chicago were net buyers of 2,500 contracts of corn and net sellers of 12,500 contracts of soybeans and 6,500 contracts of wheat.

- The European Commission has raised the forecast for wheat exports from the EU during the season from 24 million tons to 26 million tons due to Russian restrictions.

- According to a forecast by Hedgepoint Global Markets, the pace of the soybean harvesting in Brazil in February will lag behind last year's and will catch up in March. Given the high soybean prices, farmers have sold 60% of their new 2021/22 crop, which is 20% more than the average. The production is projected at 132 million tons.

- Due to less rainfall, Buenos Aires Grain Exchange have lowered their forecast for the soybean production in Argentina by 0.5 million tons to a total of 46 million tons (49 million tons in 2019/20). 18% of soybeans are in good and excellent condition (21% a week earlier and 66% a year earlier), 69% in fair (69%) and 13% in poor (10%). The forecast for the corn production remains unchanged at 47 million tons. However, some analysts expect the corn production to be in the range of 43-45 million tons. 90% of the crops are in excellent and fair condition (92% a week earlier).

- For the first 25 weeks of the season, 5.9 million tons of canola and 3.2 million tons of soybeans were exported from Canada, which is +33% and +45% more than in 2019/20, respectively.

- According to Rosstat, in 2020 the grain production in Russia had 133 million tons of net weight compared to 121.2 million tons in 2019 and 135.5 million tons in 2017. Other productions reached:

  • wheat- 85.9 million tons (74.5 million tons in 2019 )
  • barley- 20.9 million tons (20.5)
  • corn- 13.5 million tons (14.3)
  • sunseed- 13.3 million tons (-13.7%)

- The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia expects an increase in the sunseed production in 2024 to 17.4 million tons compared to 13.3 million tons in 2020.

- During the week, Algeria bought 630,000 - 660,000 tons of wheat, incl. 270,000 tons from France and 210,000 tons from Argentina .