- The good news today is that we have seen reports that the US Senate has reached agreement (at last) to reopen the Federal Government and restore some normality to daily activity. On the other hand it would seem likely that the USDA will cancel (late) publication of the October reports purely because the November report is due to be published on 8th November.
- US weather continues to look dry for the coming fortnight with limited frost whilst in Brazil the next two weeks appear to offer favourable rains which will encourage planting progress, particularly in the north where delays have been reported. The Southern Russia and Ukraine weather is forecast warmer which will aid late planting and early crop development.
- Reuters published a story (and we choose this description as opposed to “report”) that China’s COFCO (China’s largest food processing, manufacturer and trader) estimates wheat imports to be no more than 5 million mt in 2013/14. Following what is believed to be some substantial early season crop damage many analysts believe some 10 million mt will be a more realistic import figure, and if we add up US, Australian and French sales commitments to date we arrive at a figure in excess of 6 million mt – hence our opener to this paragraph!
- Lanworth have updated their 2013/14 crop estimates with global wheat and soybean output unchanged at 706 million mt and 286 million mt respectively. Global corn was estimated 1 million mt lower than a month ago at 952 million mt with the Brazilian contribution 300,000 mt down at 73.8 million mt.