IGC FURTHER LOWERS GRAIN INVENTORY ESTIMATES
With tighter opening stocks and reduced production estimates, the International Grains Council (IGC) further decreased its 2023-24 global grain inventories by 6 million tonnes. “Cumulative ending stocks are placed at 582 million tonnes, 2% lower than the season before and the smallest in nine years,” the IGC said in its October Grain Market Report.
Total grain production estimates decreased in the month by 2 million tonnes to a total of 2.292 billion. Larger corn (maize) and sorghum crops outweighed declines for wheat, barley and oats, the IGC said. With heavy Southern Hemisphere harvests, global soybean output is expected to reach 393 million tonnes. World rice production could reach a peak in 2023-24 with potentially larger main crops in Asia and the Americas, the IGC said.
(Link: WorldGrain)
UKRAINE’S GRAIN SECTOR LOSSES COULD TOP $3.2 BLN IN 2023 DUE TO WAR
Ukrainian grain and oilseeds crop sector losses could exceed $3.2 billion in 2023 due to the high cost of logistics as well as fuel and fertiliser price hikes, which threaten to reduce sown areas in the next and coming years, farmers unions said on Thursday. The Agrarian Council, Ukraine’s largest agribusiness group, said the cost of wheat production in 2023 was about $146 a metric ton, with an average selling price of $102. Farmers spend $149 to grow maize and they can sell it for $94. The Council said that in 2023, even sunflower and rapeseed production would be unprofitable, and only soybeans would give some profit to farmers.
Not only financial difficulties, but also unfavorable weather may significantly reduce the sowing area. State weather forecasters said this week that the prolonged absence of rain across most Ukrainian regions had created unfavorable conditions both for the ongoing sowing of winter crops and for the plants already sown. They said the worst situation in terms of soil moisture was in the Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Kharkiv regions where up to 20 cm of upper soil layers were completely dry.
(Link: Reuter)
