June 25, 2008

 

Asia Grain Outlook on Wednesday: Corn prices may soften on drier US weather

 

 

Chicago Board of Trade corn prices are likely to fall for the rest of the week as weather improves in U.S. corn growing areas.

 

CBOT corn futures fell for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, after a relentless rise through most of the month.

 

"I expect prices to fall more in the next couple of weeks," said Adel Yusupov, Southeast Asia regional director for the U.S. Grains Council, based in Kuala Lumpur. USGC is a growers' lobby group.

 

Yusupov said that drier weather in the U.S. and the receding of flood waters in Midwest will likely lead to a pause in corn's bull run.

 

However, some bullishness may still linger as uncertainty remains about how much of the corn already planted has been lost to floods, he said. Corn planting in the U.S. is 95% completed.

 

In Asia, Japanese corn buyers are likely to conclude their third-quarter 2008 corn purchases by early July.

 

Despite high prices, Japanese buyers continue to buy U.S. corn, as it meets government regulations for feed formulations in Japan.

 

In wheat news, India's federal agriculture minister Sharad Pawar told reporters Monday that the country's wheat crop, harvesting for which concluded in May, could be 78 million metric tonnes, the highest annual wheat crop since India gained independence in 1947, reported news agency Press Trust of India.

 

He said that the government has procured 22.2 million tonnes of wheat at state-set intervention prices, and the government will begin selling some of this wheat in the open market over the next six months in order to keep domestic prices in check.