Tight supply and thin demand from the domestic poultry industry are likely to leave Thai corn prices steady in coming days, traders said on Tuesday.
Domestic corn, a major ingredient in poultry feed, was steady at 7.5 baht per kg ($183/tonne) compared with a week.
"Most feedmillers have slowed buying corn. They are waiting to buy fresh supply when it hits the market in about 20 days," said a corn trader.
Farmers have planted the 2004/05-corn crop after good rains in the past month, traders said.
The crop year runs from July to June and planting normally begins in March.
The harvest season usually starts in mid-July. Traders estimate the 2004/05 crop will rise to between 4.3 and 4.5 million tonnes due to favourable weather and high local prices compared with 4.3 million tonnes a year.
Traders said no Thai corn had been offered for export for three months because of tight supply and high local prices.
However, exports arranged more than three months ago have been loading.
Thailand shipped 846,664 tonnes of corn between July 1 and June 11, versus 166,289 tonnes a year.
During the period, Thailand exported 480,000 tonnes of corn to Malaysia, and 283,725 tonnes to South Korea, figures from traders showed.
Thai feedmillers said on Tuesday that they have no plan to import corn although the government has allowed duty-free imports of up to 500,000 tonnes by mid-July to address possible shortages.
"No feedmiller has clinched any contract to import corn. And we are not going to do so," said a federal official. "The reason is because we still have some stocks left that would last until new supply hits the market next month."
Traders said they did not expect Thailand to import as much as 500,000 tonnes of corn because the poultry industry was still recovering from the bird flu outbreak, which was keeping a lid on demand.
Thailand has yet to declare itself free of the avian influenza, which killed eight Thais and forced the culling of 35 million chickens this year.
A fresh case of the virus was found on a university research farm in the northern city of Chiang Mai last month.
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