CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade corn futures fell on Thursday, despite the US Agriculture Department’s report of record weekly corn exports, traders said.

• CBOT March corn settled 2 cents lower at $5.50 per bushel, after reaching $5.58, its highest since June 2013.

• Export sales of US corn reached 7.520 million tonnes in the week ended Jan. 28, according to the USDA - the biggest week of sales on record, led by 5.860 million tonnes sold to China.

• Brazil’s agriculture minister said the country expects to harvest more than 103 million tonnes of corn, despite expected second-crop planting delays caused by a slow soybean harvest.

• The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service post in Brazil reduced its estimate for Brazilian corn production to 105 million tonnes, versus the official USDA forecast of 109 million tonnes.

  • Argentina’s 2020/21 corn crop is expected at 46 million tonnes, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said, citing lower-than-expected yields caused by dry weather as the reason for cutting its earlier estimate of 47 million tonnes.

• Global food prices rose for an eighth consecutive month in January to their highest since July 2014, the United Nations food agency said, with rising corn prices leading to a 7.1% increase in the FAO’s cereal price index, buoyed in part by purchases by China and lower-than-expected US production.