Thanks to forecasts of large harvests, global grain supplies will rise again this year, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. It estimated a stockpile of 576 million tonnes of grain at the end of the 2014/15 marketing season. “This would represent a 2 percent (11 million tonnes) expansion from their already elevated opening levels and the highest in thirteen years,” said the FAO report. The stock-to-use ratio would be a comfortable 23 percent, a 10 year high.
The U.S. corn crop was forecast by FAO for 345 million tonnes or 2.5 percent less than the record 2013 crop. “The anticipated decline from 2013 would be mainly on account of a small reduction in plantings, outweighing expectations of above-average yields,” it said. The Agriculture Department projects record yields and a crop of 354 million tonnes or 13.9 billion bushels. USDA will issue its monthly Crop report and companion WASDE report on June 11.
Winter wheat yields in Oklahoma were a bit better than expected in the early days of harvesting, says World Grain. USDA has forecast a state average of 19 bushels an acre.