Morning Ramblings

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 08:02 | Categorized as

24/03/11 -- It seems that the boys from Brazil are lining up another massive, if somewhat soggy, record soybean crop with all the usual logistical problems that come with it.

The oft overlooked, despite being the world's fourth largest exporter, Paraguay also look like weighing in with record production this year, whilst Argentina look set to have their second highest crop on record.

Lucky then that China have an appetite for all these extra soybeans. In fact I read somewhere yesterday that in 1995 China was producing and consuming around 14 MMT of soybeans a year. Here we are in 2011 and they are still producing 14 MMT of soybeans and now importing a likely further 60 MMT on top of that this year.

They might be buying soybeans, but are they also buying corn? This afternoon's USDA weekly export sales report may offer some confirmation of this, although I personally doubt it. That doesn't necessarily mean that some business hasn't been done via the backdoor, but I think it is unlikely to show up this afternoon. This week's volume is expected in the region of 750 thousand to 1 million MT, a decrease on last week's 1.34 MMT.

The IGC are also out today with their latest S&D numbers and we will also find out tonight what volume of export licences Brussels have issued in the past week.