After record high, a marginal decline in global food prices
Sharply lower prices for palm, sunflower and soybean oils helped pull down the Food Price Index marginally from its record high that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Grain prices also fell during April while meat, dairy and sugar prices rose.
Good year for grain-farm income despite pandemic
The typical Midwestern grain farm could generate more than twice as much income this year as in 2019, thanks to higher market prices and large federal payments, said two University of Illinois analysts. The outlook for the new year is much more dour, especially without new stopgap payments.
Merger proposal would shorten the grain trade’s ABCD to three letters
The largest U.S. grain processor, ADM, is pursuing a takeover of Bunge, another of the giants of the grain trade that collectively are known as ABCD — ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus, an unnamed source told Reuters. Due to low prices engendered by a string of bumper crops worldwide, margins are tight in the grain trade.
Tough year ahead for farmers due to low grain prices, says Purdue
Grain prices will run at or near decade lows, keeping farm income in a slump, say Purdue agricultural economists. In the Purdue Agricultural Economics Report 2017, they say the average value of farmland in Indiana was $7,041 an acre, down by 13 percent from the 2013 peak because of weakness in the farm sector.
As China idles land, grain output to decline 2.5 percent
Some 5 million hectares of polluted or degraded farmland in China will be retired from production, with a resulting 2.5-percent drop in grain production by 2020, a state planning official told reporters in Beijing. Reuters reported that the official, Wu Xiao, said food security would not be affected by the downturn in production.
Farmers say they will sit on grain rather than sell at low prices
A monthly Purdue survey says farmers plan to store more of their crop than normal during the fall harvest, likely because of sharp declines in commodity prices since spring. More than 40 percent of respondents told the Ag Economy Barometer that they have priced a smaller portion of their crops than they would in a typical year.
Grain prices to remain low into 2017
The global grain glut and weaker demand from China will keep grain prices low into next year, according to analysts at Olam International, one of the world's largest commodities traders, reports Bloomberg.