News

• Quick Editorial: fund liquidation continued to weigh on soybeans and hold down the grain complex in general overnight, and it remains by and large a bearish anticipation of the USDA’s initial new-crop tables tomorrow…

• South Korea’s MFG bought 70k tonnes of optional-origin corn for just under $273/tonne, for arrival by Nov 25; that’s the lowest they’ve paid so far in 2012, and under $1/tonne above the price they paid for wheat yesterday.

• Taiwan is seeking 48,700 tonnes of U.S. wheat, for late June-early July shipment, while Japan is looking for 120k tonnes of feed wheat and 200k tonnes of feed barley by the end of […]

Informa Economics Friday morning reportedly estimated 2012 corn planted acres at 96.124 million (up 260,000 from USDA’s March intentions); soybeans at 75.822 million (up 1.92 million from March); and other spring wheat at 13.476 million acres (up 1.5 million acres from March).

China books more corn; should drive corn carry down

As of April 26, China has booked 4.523 million metric tons (MMT) of U.S. corn for delivery in the 2011-12 marketing year. (That’s about 178 million bushels.) That’s already well ahead of USDA’s
April estimate that China would import 4 MMT of corn in the current marketing year. And that
tally does not include old-crop sales of 2.024 MMT for delivery to unknown destinations —
which likely includes some corn ultimately headed to China.

This should result in an increase in the old-crop corn export forecast in USDA’s May 10 Supply & Demand Report. In April, exports were estimated at 1.7 billion bushels. China’s “extra” bookings would add
about 21 million bu. to that estimate. And some of the nearly 80 million bu. of corn sold to
unknown destinations likely is not included in USDA’s April export projection.

But — USDA’s corn analysts could easily decide to not increase the export forecast until the bushels are actually shipped. (It has happened before.) That could leave 2011-12 corn carryover at 801 million bushels

A coalition of 30 Congressmen wrote last week to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking what steps USDA has taken to correct the public record and educate consumers about the safety of lean finely-textured beef (LFTB).

”We believe that USDA is in a unique position to help bring to
light the facts about LFTB. We understand that Congress, too,
can play a role,” the Congressmen coalition stated in its letter.
”How can Congress and the USDA work together to stop the campaign of misinformation about LFTB?”

The European Union’s executive said on Wednesday it did not intend to impose any paricular measures on imports from the United States following the discovery of the country’s first case of mad cow disease or BSE in six years. ”The (European) Commission is satsfied that the new BSE case has been confirmed in the framework of the ongoing
BSE surveillance system in the United States, which prevented
this animal from entering the food chain,” EU Commission
health spokesman Frederic Vincent said in a statement, referring
to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

—Reuters, 4/25/2012