Headlines:

  • Cocoa soars as pound dips, but real hurts sugar
    So, the US Department of Agriculture’s WASDE crop report was not exactly a fillip for bullish sentiment. “The USDA provided a lot of numbers and not one of them could be seen as supportive” to grain prices, said Darrell Holaday at broker Country Futures. “It does not mean that they were all bearish, but there was not one number that inspired any buying.” So, it was down largely to weather worries to give futures a chance of a positive close. “The market faded off of the report, but the midday GFS [weather model] was slightly drier than the morning run and that has supported the market on price breaks,” Mr. Holaday said.)
  • United Nations trumpets appeal of going organic in bananas
    Going organic may help banana growers in former colonies of European Union countries – and nations in the bloc itself – overcome a growing threat to trade from Ecuador, the top exporter of the fruit. Exports to the EU – the biggest importer of bananas, which at $8bn a year is the world’s largest traded fruit – have been a big prop to farm sectors in Asian, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries which have since 1993 been allowed duty free access to the bloc. Since 2008, when volume limits on such exports were removed, shipments from “the three largest ACP banana suppliers – Dominican Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon – have substantially expanded”, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said. ACP countries, which also include the likes of Cameroon, Jamaica and Suriname, account for some 20% of EU imports, equivalent to more than 1.0m tonnes a year.

Summary:

There was little change yielded from today’s USDA WASDE report. Forecasts for Soybean inventories were raised but Corn stockpiles were unchanged. The 2016-17 Corn stocks projections edged trade estimates that were at 2.287 billion bushels coming in at the same levels as last month’s 2.295 billion bushels. Similarly, new crop inventories topped traded expectations coming in at 2.11 billion bushels but matching the inventories figures from last month. Old crop Soybean projections came in at 450 million bushels beating both last month’s number and trade estimates by 15 million and 17 million bushels respectively. New crop projections topped estimates by 10 million and last month by 15 million bushels coming in at 495 million bushels. The Wheat carry out was very much in line with trade estimates coming in at 1.16 billion bushels. Inventories were stronger coming in 13 million bushels above estimates and 10 million bushels more than last month at 924 million bushels. The elephant in the room was the USDA’s change for Brazilian Soybean production. They raised the outlook almost 3 million metric tons to 144 million. The Argentine Soybean output also got a bump pushing it to 57.8 million tons, up 0.8 million tons from last months.