WASHINGTON, June 10, 2016 – The U.S. will export 1.9 billion bushels of corn in the year starting Sept. 1, up 50 million bushels from the May forecast, USDA said today in a monthly report, as late-season heat has damaged the crop in Brazil and Argentina’s harvest has suffered from delays.
The uptick in exports is welcome as the U.S. crop that will be harvested in late summer and fall is estimated at a record 14.430 billion bushels. Farm gate prices for next marketing year will average $3.50 a bushel, USDA said, a 15 cent increase from the month-ago report.
The forecast for soybean exports was also raised, to 1.9 billion bushels, from 1.885 billion in May. The crop production estimate was unchanged at 3.8 billion bushels. Ending stocks were projected at 260 million bushels, down from 305 million forecast in May. That helped push the average soybean cash-price estimate up to $9.50 a bushel, from $9.10 in the May report.
Other highlights from today’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report include:
--Wheat production for 2016/2017 is projected at 2.077 billion bushels, up 79 million bushels from May, mainly on improved prospects for the Hard Red Winter wheat crop in the Great Plains “following excellent conditions throughout the spring months.” Winter wheat yield is forecast to be record high.
--U.S. 2015/2016 rice ending stocks are lowered 500,000 hundredweight to 42.9 million cwt on a 1-million-ton increase in exports. The larger exports are based on a faster-than-expected pace of sales of southern medium- and short-grain rice to North Africa and the Middle East.
--The forecast for total red meat and poultry production in 2016 and 2017 is lowered from last month, largely as higher feed prices dampen the rate of production growth.
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