October 24, 2012

Spot corn prices in China's key producing regions continue to decline, with rising corn supply likely to affect prices in the following month.

The country is expected to achieve bumper harvest of corn this year and this has boosted market expectations for corn supply in the future. The state-backed think-tank, China National Grain and Oils Information Centre, earlier predicted that China's corn output would rise 4.26% on year to 201 million tonnes in 2012.

Currently, the downstream processing and animal breeding enterprises have come to the corn market for purchases, which has helped slowed down the pace of the crop's price decline.

Analysts say that the corn market will probably keep the weak trend till the end of this year when the government is anticipated to unveil the floor purchase price for the new corn.

Purchase prices of corn had stayed at around CNY2,300 (US$368) per tonne in northeast China and up to CNY2,240 (US$358) per tonne in north China regions.