China made another large buy of U.S. corn to start the week, and market analysts say food security concerns are driving the country’s increased appetite for commodities. USDA confirmed a flash sale Monday that totaled 1.020 million metric tons of corn by China. 680,000 tons of the purchase are for old crop, with the remaining 340,000 for delivery in the 2022/2023 marketing year.
The purchase was on the heels of China’s largest corn purchase since May of 2021 last week, a purchase that totaled 1.084 million tons. Brian Grete, editor of Pro Farmer, thinks it’s a trend that will continue.
“China's in a hoarding mode right now,” says Grete. “Food security is one of their top priorities, if not their top priority, and you just took a chunk out with Ukraine. Ukraine had become a major supplier of corn to China. And I think that we will see China in for more corn.”
Corn prices climbed again this week, with CBOT corn hitting over $7.83 per bushel, the highest since 2012. ..
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https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/corn/c ... oric-highs
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https://twitter.com/RichNelsonMkts/stat ... 9396882436
"Apr 6, 2022
China food security: farmers in Jilin leave fields fallow as lock-down threatens corn supply
Food security concerns are mounting in China as lockdowns show no signs of easing in the major corn-growing province of Jilin ahead of spring ploughing.
In some parts of the province like Lishu county, an important corn production area that President Xi Jinping inspected last year, crop-straws from the previous harvest litter the ground because farmers have not been allowed to leave their houses.
“There are crop-straws all over the fields now,” said Dong, whose family farms two hectares (5 acres) of corn fields in Lishu. “It is impossible to plant the seeds.”
Dong, who gave only his surname, said farmers would normally be stubble-cleaning, ridging and fertilising to prepare for seeding at the beginning of May.
“Now no one is allowed to go out,” he said. “And the agricultural stores have no seeds and fertilisers. Even if they have, farmers can’t go out to buy.”
Jilin province is home to 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of corn fields that account for 10 per cent of the national total, official figures showed. ..
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https://www.poreg.org/china-food-securi ... rn-supply/
