Corn prices in Ukraine are rising amid delayed harvest and speculative increases in stock market quotes

to raise purchase prices to accumulate the necessary batches for export. As of October 23, 7.713 million tons of corn were threshed in Ukraine from 31% of the area (+10% per week) or 1.315 million hectares with a yield of 5.87 tons/hectare, although last year at this time 15.4 million tons were threshed from 67% of the area with a yield of 5.72 tons/hectare. Export demand prices for corn in Ukraine increased by 100-150 UAH/t during the week to 9650-9700 UAH/t ($202-205/t) with delivery to Black Sea ports, which was also facilitated by the 0.9% increase in the dollar exchange rate against the hryvnia. Farmers are reluctant to sell corn because they are busy harvesting and also expect further price increases, so they prefer to sell sunflower at high prices. Speculative growth in corn quotes in the US also gives hope for a recovery in prices after falling to a 5-year low. December corn futures in Chicago rose 2.9% during the week to $170/t (-5.1% in two weeks) on expectations of a ...