World grain supplies will rise marginally in 2023/24, buoyed by larger corn harvests in the United States, the EU, and Argentina, said the International Grains Council on Thursday. The council’s monthly Grain Market Report said corn production would rise 4.5 percent, to reach 1.202 billion tonnes worldwide.
In its first full set of projections for the 2023/24 season, the IGC, assuming bigger crops in Asia, said world rice production could be the highest on record, at 522 million tonnes, up 2 percent from 2022/23. It predicted wheat production would fall 1 percent globally, with the Russian harvest retreating 13 percent from 2022’s bumper crop. “Tentative prospects” point to a larger global soybean crop of 399 million tonnes, an 8 percent increase.
For corn, the IGC projected a U.S. crop of 377.7 million tonnes, or 14.9 billion bushels, an 8 percent increase from 2022. Last month, the USDA projected the new crop at 15.1 billion bushels. The IGC projected a 12.8 million-tonne increase in EU corn production and an increase of 15 million tonnes in Argentina. The United States is the world’s largest corn producer.