Delaying harvest until late October will support corn prices in Ukraine

The cessation of prolonged rainfall in Ukraine has accelerated the harvest of sunflower and soybeans, but due to high humidity and farmers’ efforts to harvest sunflower first, the harvest of corn is slow, which continues to delay deliveries to the port and keeps purchase prices high. As of October 16, 4.913 million tons of corn were harvested in Ukraine from 21% of the area (+6% per week) or 895 thousand hectares of area with a yield of 5.49 tons/hectare, although last year at this time 13.2 million tons were threshed from 59% of the area with a yield of 5.5 tons/hectare. This season, due to high humidity, some of the corn has not ripened, and there is also a deterioration in quality due to damaged and broken grains, but the yield is predicted to be quite high. Export demand prices for corn in Ukraine remained at $202-204/t or UAH 9,500-9,650/t for delivery to Black Sea ports during the week, with traders reporting that sales are accelerating and the volumes needed for November ...