December 24, 2007

South Korea imports more feed corn from China, Argentina less from US
 

South Korea is importing more feed corn from China and Argentina and less from the US, according to data from the Korea Trade Information Services.

Feed corn imports from the US fell more than a million tonnes from 4.9 million tonnes during the Jan-Nov period last year to 3.7 million tonnes this year, presumably due to the high prices.

 On the other hand, feed corn imports from China nearly doubled during the same period, from 1.2 million tonnes to 2.2 million tonnes this year.

With one more month left to the year, feed corn imports from Argentina rose ten-fold from 23,373 tonnes in the whole of 2006 to more than 232,000 tonnes from Jan-Nov this year.
 

Imports for feed grain corn was up while food grade corn was down.

Feed corn imports were up 2.2 percent to 6.2 million tonnes from a year ago, while imports of food-grade corn in the January-November period fell 0.7 percent to 1.69 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, two groups of South Korean feed makers bought up to 385,000 tonnes of US corn, traders said on Friday.

The Korea Feed Association (KFA) and Major Feedmill Group purchased seven cargoes of corn for April through August arrivals late on Thursday.

KFA has issued a tender to buy an additional 495,000 tonnes of corn on Friday.

In other news, traders reported that The Korea Corn Processing Industry Association has passed on a tender to buy up to 165,000 tonnes of non-genetically modified corn due to high prices.