U.S. corn supplies will rise to their highest in 33 years due to massive plantings and what is expected to be a record crop.
[It’s] a bounty so big that it will outweigh export demand and increased ethanol usage as the biofuel sector recovers from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Agriculture Department, in its first forecast for the 2020/21 marketing year based on its March plantings outlook of 97 million acres, pegged corn stocks at a massive 3.318 billion bushels. If realized, that will be the fourth biggest ever and the largest stockpile since the 1987/88 marketing year.
“To be honest, it doesn’t really matter if the corn carry out is 3.2 billion (bushels), or 3.7 billion, it’s just too much corn,” said Charlie Sernatinger, global head of grain future at ED&F Man Capital.
The corn market shrugged off the report, however, with the benchmark Chicago Board of Trade July futures contract turning higher after the figures were released as traders had already priced in a huge stockpile.