SINGAPORE: Chicago corn edged lower on Wednesday, easing from its highest in more than three months on farmer selling and forecasts of harvest-friendly weather across the US Midwest.
Wheat eased after climbing 1.5 percent on Tuesday on support from unfavourable weather in key wheat exporting countries.
FUNDAMENTALS
Spot corn and soybean basis bids weakened in parts of the US Midwest as crop sales by farmers pressured cash prices, grain merchants said.
Multi-year low corn and soybean prices had forced farmers to hold back supplies earlier this month. The slow pace of sales left domestic processors and exporters short of supplies needed to meet commitments, forcing them to cover their short future positions.
Huge export commitments have tightened domestic supplies of US soymeal, pushing up cash market prices despite the arrival of a record soybean crop at processors.
Importers have already booked 6.245 million tonnes of US soymeal for the 2014/15 crop year, according to US Department of Agriculture data, the biggest amount on record for mid-October, and over half what the government expects total exports for the crop year will be.
US farmers are likely to boost the pace of harvest after delays resulting from wet weather. The corn harvest is 46 percent done, below the average pace of 65 percent, USDA said in a weekly report on Monday.
The US soybean harvest is 70 percent complete, close to the five-year average of 76 percent and up from 53 percent a week ago.
The USDA estimated the condition of winter wheat at 59 percent good-to-excellent, well below analysts' expectations of 68 percent.
A return of warmer weather in November will be crucial for the 2015 grain crop in Russia and Ukraine after a lack of rain and early cold left plantings vulnerable, analysts and forecasters said.
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