With world corn production down 4 percent, the global stockpile of grain will shrink for the sixth year in a row, said the International Grains Council on Thursday. In a monthly report, the IGC said the 2022/23 global harvest would be 1 percent smaller than last season’s record output.
“Much of the fall stems from a relatively steep drop in maize, with sizable losses expected in Ukraine, the EU, and the United States,” said the Monthly Grain Report. Production in those three areas would fall by a combined 58.9 million tonnes from their 2021/22 harvest of 495.3 million tonnes. The United States is the world’s largest corn producer. The smaller global corn crop would be offset by larger wheat, barley, and oat crops.
The grain inventory at the end of the 2022/23 season would total 584 million tonnes, down from 600 million tonnes at the start of the year, a 3 percent decline, said the IGC, based in London. Consumption by food, feed, and industry was forecast at a “much larger than average” 2.27 billion tonnes.
Soybean production would surge 9 percent, to a record 386 million tonnes this season, “near-entirely stemming from bigger harvests in South America,” said the IGC.