April 30, 2009

   
China's corn prices in major producing areas were mostly stable in the week to Wednesday (April 29) as farmers didn't have stocks left to sell, while demand was weak.

Corn prices in Harbin in the major producing Heilongjiang province were around RMB1,260 a tonne, unchanged from a week ago.

Trading was very light as the government has almost completed corn purchases in the northeast and farmers don't have much corn left on hand, said analysts.

However, prices in southern consumption areas were lower due to weak feedmeal demand.

Corn prices at Changsha in Hunan province were around RMB1,740/tonne, down RMB20 from a week ago, while prices at Wuhan in Hubei province were around RMB1,620/ton, down RMB60.

The swine flu outbreak also affected feedmeal demand, since pork consumption could fall in the wake of the scare.

"The flu will have a fairly big impact on China's hog industry as people will reduce pork consumption, and anyway many Chinese hog breeders are already making losses due to ample hog supply," said Liu Dewang, an expert at Beijing New Century Agricultural High Technology Research Institute.

Corn prices don't have much room to rise if feedmeal demand doesn't improve much, said China Corn Network in a note.