The bigger-than-expected corn crop in the United States is helping to drive world cereal grain production to a record for the second year in a row, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Mammoth production and huge stockpiles have held cereal prices, including for wheat and rice, the world’s leading food grains, in check for most of this year, said the FAO in its monthly Food Price Index report.
In a companion report, the FAO said world wheat production would be modestly larger than the record set last year, while rice output would be fractionally below the 2016 record. Global grain production, dominated by corn, would be nearly 2 percent larger than last year’s record. “Higher estimates for maize [corn] production in the United States, following positive revisions for yields,” were the major reason the FAO boosted its forecast for global grain output this month.
The FAO said grain consumption would not keep pace with surging production, resulting in a 3 percent rise during 2017/18 in so-called ending stocks, to 726 million tonnes. Ending stocks are the amount of grain in storage at the close of a marketing year. “At this level, the world stocks-to-use ratio is projected at 27.3 percent, up slightly from 2016/17 and the highest since 2001/02,” said the FAO.
The Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in prices of a basket of food commodities, declined slightly, to 175.8 points, from 176.6 the previous month, due to lower dairy prices.