October 13, 2010
 

Indian 2010-11 corn exports may rise on higher global prices

India's corn exports may rise 20% in the fiscal year through March 2011, thanks to a bigger crop and higher global prices, trade and government officials said on Tuesday (Oct 12).

The world's fifth-largest corn supplier expects to produce around 20 million tonnes in the crop year to June 30, up 20% from a year earlier because of higher planting and good monsoon rains, officials said.

Better corn harvest will help traders export around three million tonnes this fiscal year. India shipped around 2.5 million tonnes in 2009-10, according to an industry estimate.

Lower-than-forecasted US corn crop and a supply crunch in feed wheat following a drought in the Black Sea region have recently driven up global prices of the animal feed and increased reliance of Asian millers on Indian corn, trade officials said.

CBOT corn futures hit a two-year high of US$5.73 one-quarter a bushel on Monday (Oct 11) after the USDA last week cut the country's output forecast for the year through August 2011 by 12 million tonnes to 322 million tonnes.

High global prices will boost India's corn exports, said Amol Sheth, president of the All India Starch Manufacturers' Association.

Some Indian traders have recently finalised export deals at around US$265 per tonne on cost-and-freight basis for Vietnam and around US$260 per tonne for Malaysia, trade officials said. Local corn prices are around Rs10,400 (US$232.9) per tonne.

Higher arrivals of the summer crop in coming days may pull down corn prices by 7-8% in the local market by the end of this month, but robust export demand will prevent a sharp fall in prices, trade officials said.

Around 70% of India's corn is sown in summer, when the monsoon rains arrive in May-June, while the remaining is grown in winter.