USDA lowers estimate for US corn crop just marginally

Friday saw the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) publish its latest forecasts of supply and demand on key agricultural markets. It had already been expected that the USDA would estimate a lower corn acreage in the US than before. Since the yields figure was unexpectedly raised, however, the less than 1 million ton downward revision of the envisaged crop to 344.3 million tons turned out to be only marginal. 

The USDA thus appears to be taking account of the fact that the proportion of corn plants rated in its weekly reports as being in "good" or "excellent" condition has remained at the relatively high level of 68% for weeks now. As a result, yields are also expected to fall only slightly short of last season's record level. The corn price responded to the figures on Friday by shedding 2.2%, notes Commerzbank.