With conditions mostly favorable for winter wheat in the northern hemisphere, the International Grains Council forecast the second mammoth wheat crop in a row – a world total of 701 million tonnes, down 2 percent from the record crop of 2014 but still 2 percent larger than the five-year average. “Assuming broadly unchanged consumption, global stocks may retreat slightly, to 189 million tonnes, mainly because of reductions from high opening levels in the EU and Russia,” said IGC’s Grain Market Report.
Soybean inventories were forecast at a peak of 42 million tonnes at the end of this marketing year, an increase of 39 percent from the preceding year. U.S. stocks were expected to quadruple. The global soybean harvest was up 10 percent in 2014 from the previous crop. IGC said “consumption is forecast to increase by around 19 million tonnes, to a new record, on expanding feed and food sector demand – especially in Asian markets.”