EU CONSIDERS MEASURES TO CONTROL UKRAINE GRAIN IMPORTS
As it looks to extend trade liberalization with Ukraine into 2025, the European Commission is considering methods of allowing eastern EU member countries to restrict imports, Reuters reported. “We’re looking at the best ways to do it, including the possibility of having the safeguards not only in the case of disturbances to the EU market as a whole but also in case of disturbances in a single member state or a few member states,” EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters before a meeting of EU ministers on trade.
Dombrovskis said the commission is looking into how to safeguard the most sensitive products. One EU diplomat said the plan would allow EU members to take action for an initial four months, subject to a commission assessment within three weeks, Reuters reported. Until mid-September last year, the EU had allowed five countries — Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia — to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds, while allowing them to transit for export elsewhere.
(Link: WorldGrain)
GROWERS STICK WITH CORN; BUMPER 2024 CROP LIKELY
Contrary to expectations, U.S. farmers say they will plant enough land for corn this year that the corn harvest will be nearly as large as the record 2023 crop, according to an email survey conducted during early winter. Growers indicated plantings of 92.8 million acres of corn, 85 million acres of soybeans, and 48 million acres of wheat in the Farm Futures survey. The USDA says season-average soybean prices will be more favorable than corn in 2024, so corn area would drop by 4% and soybeans would expand by 4%. It projects corn at 91 million acres, soybeans at 87 million acres, and wheat at 48 million acres this year. With normal weather and trend-line yields, the corn harvest would be 15.238 billion bushels, less than 1% smaller than the 2023 crop. Soybean production would total 4.361 billion bushels, the third-largest crop on record. The wheat crop would be 1.887 billion bushels, slightly larger than in 2023.
(Link: Successful Farming)
