Brazil Will Soon Be Awash With Corn

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 13:38 | Categorized as

06/06/12 -- Conab yesterday raised their Brazilian corn crop estimate to 67.8 MMT, versus 65.9 MMT in May and 65.14 MMT in April. That's thanks to an anticipated bumper winter corn crop, harvesting of which will begin within weeks, which will now account for almost half of this year's total production.

Conab cut their 2011/12 soybean production estimate by 0.3 MMT to 63.4 MMT, meaning that this will be the first time in over a decade that Brazil will harvest more corn than soybeans this season.

So what are they planning on doing with all that corn? Export it of course. Corn exports this year are pegged at a record 11 MMT, but could easily be higher given that 2011/12 ending stocks are estimated at an" unprecedented" 16 MMT.

With Brazilian FOB prices said to be around USD20-30/tonne cheaper than those on the US Gulf, port listings show that there's 820 TMT of corn lining up to be exported out of Brazilian ports this week. A year ago that total was only 294 TMT.