Most of China's north-eastern provinces, which produce about one-third of the country's corn output, are expecting snow and rain in coming days, as the harvest hits the half-way mark. Frosts are also forecast in much of the north-eastern and northern-most areas this week, said the China Meteorological Administration at a report on its web site (www.cma.gov.cn).
"The corn harvest is not as good as previously expected" due to bad weather in the later stages, said one analyst with Shanghai JC Intelligence (JCI) Co Ltd, adding it had revised down its output estimate to 153 million tonnes from an earlier projection of 158.7 million tonnes. But the figure was still higher than last year's output, which it put at 136 million tonnes, because of serious drought.
The official China National Grain and Oils Information Centre maintained its forecast at a record 169 million tonnes for this year. Demand for corn by feed mills remained strong, said the centre. The number of pigs increased by 8.1 million heads over the past three months due to good breeding margins and farmers restocking ahead of the Lunar New Year, the centre said in a report on its web site (www.grain.gov.cn).
Beijing sold only 37 percent of corn reserves offered at weekly state auctions in the north-east, with an average price 1 percent higher than last week because harvested grain in the north-east has not yet reached the market. Sales of early-matured crop in the north and central provinces have pushed down physical prices in these areas by 1 percent this week.
Comments
Comments are closed.