Day: June 25, 2018

CBOT Corn futures closed steady to fractionally mixed as July was down 1.11% on the week. The USDA reported a private export sale of 131,300 MT of corn to Mexico this morning. The sale was broke down to 30,000 MT for delivery in 2017/18, with the remaining 101,300 MT set for 2018/19 shipment. There was also a sale of 117,000 MT for 2018/19 to Panama reported through the USDA’s daily reporting system. The 6-10 day outlook is forecasting above average temps and precip in most of the Corn Belt. China sold 739,954 MT of corn from state reserves, totaling 18.64% of the offered amount.

The National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India will buy 4,100 tn of maize through an e-auction. The commodity, used as cattle feed, will be bought on behalf of Rajasthan Co-operative Dairy Federation. The National Cooperative Dairy Federation, with around 200 dairy cooperatives as members, has developed an online trading platform to purchase feed stock and sell dairy products.

Maize futures on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange ended lower as traders booked profits after a rise in the last two sessions. The most-active August maize contract on NCDEX ended at 1,175 rupees per 100 kg, down 0.8% from the previous close. Prices of maize have remained subdued in the last one month due to poor demand and high inventories from the kharif crop. Subdued prices of the coarse grain have also been keeping farmers away from taking up its cultivation this kharif season. As of last week, acreage of kharif maize was down 22.6% on year at 491,000 ha.

The delivery center for maize contracts expiring in November and thereafter has been shifted to Sangli from Erode. As an additional delivery center earlier, Sangli received deposits of 12,350 tn of maize in 2015-16 and 6,100 tn in 2016-17. Sangli is also an important production center for the cereal, while Erode was mainly a consumption center. The November maize contract will be available for trading from Jul 2. Nizamabad and Jalgaon have been added as additional delivery centers to increase participation from farmer producer organisations.

Punjab-based starch and poultry feed industries travel hundreds of kilometres to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to procure superior quality maize in bulk and also save up to Rs 50 per quintal. Maize production in Punjab is far less than demand mainly because of farmers’ over-dependence on lucrative crops like paddy. The annual industrial demand of maize is around 3-4 million tonnes while Punjab produces less than 1 million tonne. Out of the total demand, almost 70% is being consumed by the poultry feed manufacturers. Punjab is likely to produce 5.70 lakh tonnes of maize in the current kharif season compared to 4.09 lakh tonnes in the previous year. As compared to Punjab, the average production in Bihar is around 6 million tonnes. Bihar grows the largest quantity of maize for the industrial use. The landing cost of maize purchased from Bihar is around Rs 1,230-1,250 per quintal. Punjab’s maize is, however, sold at around Rs 1,250-1,270 per quintal, including levies.