The outlook for the corn crop in the EU is deteriorating. Traders in Paris and Chicago react to the situation on the Black Sea.
In Chicago, corn prices moved up significantly on Monday. On the CBoT, the most heavily traded December future gained 32 ct to 568.25 ct/bu (202 EUR/t). On Euronext, fears of a blockade of Ukrainian corn exports also caused prices to rise. The best-selling November term closed up EUR 11.50 at EUR 248.50/t, which was the highest level for this future in more than three months.
The EU market was also supported by falling yield expectations. In southern Europe, corn is suffering from high temperatures. The European forecasting service Mars now expects an average corn yield of 7.53 t/ha in the EU, down from 7.61 t/ha in June. For Germany, the forecast has been lowered from 9.57 to 9.21 t/ha.
Farmers in Brazil had harvested 47% of their second corn crop by last Thursday, according to AgRural. That’s up 11 percentage points from the previous week, but down from 62% a year ago.
Prices also moved sharply higher in the cash market. Franko Südoldenburg corn for August delivery traded at EUR 0.28/kg, up EUR 0.16 from Friday.