SINGAPORE: Feed millers in Asia are boosting corn purchases from India, as a severe drought has reduced production in traditional supplier Argentina, two traders said on Thursday.

Importers in Malaysia and Vietnam are booking around 200,000 tonnes of Indian corn a month, they said. “The drought has reduced production in Argentina and we have the ongoing issue with supplies from Ukraine due to the war,” one Kuala Lumpur-based trader said on the sidelines of a grains conference in Singapore.

“India is offering competitive prices, so there is more interest in buying Indian corn.” Argentina’s 2022/23 corn production is estimated to drop to 41 million tonnes, compared with 44.5 million tonnes previously estimated, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said.

Early frosts could further hurt the country’s already beleaguered soybean and corn crops. Indian corn is quoted around $310-$315 a tonne, including cost and freight (C&F), to Southeast Asia, compared with South American corn being offered around $330 a tonne, traders said. India is expected to continue corn shipments to Southeast Asia in the coming months amid ample supplies from crops in southern parts of the country, said one of the traders.

“We are getting good supplies from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (states),” said one India-based trader.