Argentina’s wheat exports for market year 2019-20 are forecast at a record high of 14.5 million tonnes, including flour exports in wheat equivalent, according to an April 25 Global Agricultural Information Network report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Maize: Due to the severe rainfall conditions in the US; corn plantings are being delayed due to wet fields.

The Western Cape is the leading producer of South Africa’s winter crops, which are wheat, barley and canola. It is also in this province where plantings typically begin at the end of April, while in other provinces it’s around midyear.

As Nigerians increasingly shift to consuming greater amounts of wheat flour-based products, the country is forecast to increase wheat imports in 2019-20 by 4%, according to a May 10 Global Agricultural Information report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The price of US yellow corn increased by 7.4% compared to last week.

The international corn market experienced high levels of volatility this week as the wet weather continues to delay plantings. The price of US corn increased by 2.9% week-on-week with the premium for white corn up by 124.3% from US$3.44/ton last week.

The domestic maize market experienced large price movements this week, the domestic wheat, wool and cotton markets experienced positive price movements, while soya bean prices are expected to spike in June.

The International Grains Council (IGC) on Thursday cut its forecast for world corn production in the 2019/2020 season, driven by a diminished outlook for the U.S. crop.

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.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on June 11 forecast the carryover of wheat on June 1, 2020, at 1.072 billion bushels, down 69 million bushels from the May outlook and down 30 million bushels from a downwardly revised 1.102 billion bushels in 2018-19 (the 25-million-bushel decline in the 2019 carryover reflected a 25-million-bushel hike in estimated 2018-19 exports to 950 million bushels). As forecast, the 2020 wheat carryover would be the smallest since 976 million bushels in 2016 and compare with 1.022 billion bushels as the recent five-year average carryover.

The USDA WASDE report indicated lower than expected yields, production and carry out stocks; this provided support for market prices.

High levels of volatility are expected to remain in the US corn market for the rest of summer. In this week alone we saw prices see-saw with price increases one day and decreases the next day.

According to a new report published by IndexBox, the revenue for Africa's wheat market amounted to $15.5bn in 2017, rising by 11% against the previous year. This figure reflects the total revenues of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers' margins, which will be included in the final consumer price).

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For the week the price of US Gulf yellow maize increased by only 0.05%. The reason for this increase in price being so slight is that the US corn market traded a bit lower on some days during the week.

The winter wheat harvest continued to advance but remained well behind the average progress for the date. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its weekly Crop Progress report indicated the winter wheat harvest was 47% completed by July 7, compared with 30% a week earlier and 61% as the five-year average for the date. Combining expanded in subsequent days but faced additional rain delays across parts of the hard winter wheat belt.

Maize: The US maize market outlook remains bullish for the intermediate term (3-6 months) limited by factors such as a strong US Dollar, weather anomalies and a weak Brazilian real.

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