Posted on September, 25, 2023 at 10:52 am
The International Grains Council (IGC) in its latest Grain Market Report forecasts a 60-million-tonne increase in global corn production in marketing year 2023-24, up 5% from the previous year.
Projected to trend in the opposite direction is wheat, which the IGC sees declining from 805 million tonnes in 2022-23 to 783 million tonnes, a nearly 3% decline year-on-year.
Global inventories of total grains, which includes wheat, corn and other coarse grains, were revised slightly upward from the previous month in the report. But at 588 million tonnes, it would still decline by 2% from last year and be at its lowest level since 2014-15, registering a seventh consecutive year-on-year decline.
Demand for total grains will increase by 2% in 2023-24, according to the IGC.
“Tied to an anticipated recovery in feed and industrial uptake, paired with a continued upswing in food demand, world consumption is seen at a record (2.305 billion tonnes),” the IGC said.
Soybean production (396 million tonnes) and carryover stocks (62 million tonnes) fell slightly from the August forecast but are projected 8% and 15% higher, respectively, year-on-year.
The IGC forecasts rice production to reach a record 523 million tonnes, up from an estimated 514 million in 2022-23.
The IGC Grains and Oilseeds Price Index increased by nearly 1% month-on-month to 265, but it is still 14.5% lower than a year ago at this time.
Source: World Grain