Accelerating corn harvest in Brazil is adding pressure on prices, despite a downgrade in the U.S. crop forecast

The harvesting of corn in Brazil is still going slower than last year, but soon the hot weather will allow to speed up the work. This increases the pressure on stock quotes, which yesterday did not even react to the further deterioration of the state of crops in the US.

On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, July corn futures rose 1% to $250.9/t yesterday after falling 5% on Friday, while December futures fell 5.9% on Friday to settle at 231 yesterday. $5/ton.

According to NASS USDA's Crop Progress report, during the week, the number of corn crops in good or excellent condition in the US decreased by 5% to 50% (67% last year), while in the center of the corn belt - the state of Illinois, only 26% is in good condition crops, and in Michigan - 28%.

This year, the national seed ranking is losing more than 7 points per week on the Brugler500 scale, the biggest drop since 1990, according to experts. For comparison, in 2012, the average drop was 6.4 points per week.

Despite the precipitation expected this week, temperatures will remain in the 30s and above, and some areas will experience no rain at all.

Exports of corn from the USA for the week of June 16-22 decreased by 53% to 542.7 thousand tons, and in total in the season amounted to 32.48 million tons, out of the USDA forecast of 43.8 million tons. In order to reach the forecast indicators, it is necessary to export by September 1 1 million tons of corn every week.

In Brazil, according to the AgRural agency, on June 26, 9.3% of second-crop corn was harvested (20.3% last year). In the main producer state of Mato Grosso, 19.2% of the area is threshed, and the average yield is quite high. In other states of the central-southern region, harvesting is delayed due to high humidity of corn.

As of June 26, Ukraine exported 28.8 million tons of corn in the 2022/23 financial year, against the USDA forecast of 27 million tons, while in the 2021/22 financial year, exports amounted to 23.54 million tons.