Corn futures in India are expected to trade higher next week on a squeeze in local supplies and dwindling stocks, though the good progress of sowing due to plentiful monsoon rains are seen weighing on sentiment. Farmers have started sowing, and the fast progress of rains is expected to aid planting, traders said.
Maize is cultivated during both summer and winter in India, Asia's largest exporter of the grain, with the major contribution coming from the summer crop. "Stocks are depleting and supplies from the winter-sown crop are also very thin. New crop would come only by September. Until then, supplies will remain tight," said Ambika T.B., an analyst at Karvy Comtrade.
The key July contract for maize rabi closed 3.22 percent higher at 1,409 rupees ($6.04 per bushel) per 100 kg, its biggest one-day rise since May 31, on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange. Bihar has received heavy rainfall in the season, which has hit the supply of the winter-sown variety from the state and the quality of the crop, delaying shipments by around two weeks, traders said.
Analysts expect the July contract to rise to 1,480 rupees by the end of next week. Rains across India's eastern crop belt are holding up shipments of corn, tightening feed grain supplies in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. India's corn output is expected to be 21.82 million tonnes in 2012/13, as per the farm ministry's third advance estimate, as against 21.76 million tonnes a year earlier.
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