A trade spat between China and the US that thrust the trade of soybeans into the political limelight may yet have an impact on the global corn market, as exporters struggling for storage space sell more corn into an oversupplied arena.

On October 5, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, told Reuters News that his country is likely to produce 1.9 million tonnes of maize in 2018/19 production season, up by 12 percent from the previous season. 

The recently released United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s monthly report could be the key driver of the global maize market today.

Wet field conditions in the United States are a huge concern for many producers and analysts.

The US yellow corn price declined by 3.6% week-on-week, this is a 17.3% decline in price compared to a year ago. The USDA crop progress report
shows that only 30% of the corn crop has been planted to date; this is in comparison to last year when 59% of the corn crop had been planted by this time.

A tractor running in the field across the road woke me this morning. As an ex-farmer, I was looking forward to sleeping another hour, but it was a good sound. As an alarm clock, it was a month late.

The US corn market pulled back this week with the price for US yellow corn dropping by 3% week-on-week, although the current price is 9% higher compared to prices a year ago.

Argentina is one of the world’s largest exporters of grains and oilseeds but those industries have been buffeted by factors outside agriculture, notably changing government policy, currency devaluation, and the U.S.-China trade dispute that is shifting the direction of its exports.