Corn futures fell for a third day in Chicago as the crop condition in the U.S. improved, boosting yield potential in the world’s largest grower and exporter. Corn for December delivery fell as much as 1.5 percent to $3.86 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $3.8675 a bushel at 2:30 p.m. Singapore time. About 73 percent of the U.S. corn crop was rated in good or excellent condition as of July 11, up from 71 percent a week earlier, the country’s Department of Agriculture said in a report yesterday. “As we progress through the U.S. growing season and get a more concrete idea of production and final numbers, I think the supply side is going to remain the primary driving factor” for prices, Toby Hassall, a research analyst at CWA Global Markets Pty, said by phone from Sydney. The volume of corn for export inspected at U.S. ports fell 15 percent to 34.519 million bushels in the week ended July 8, from a week earlier, the USDA said yesterday. China, the world’s second-largest corn consumer, sold a total of 606,900 tons of the grain from state stockpiles in Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia through auctions today, according to the National Grain & Oil Trade Center website. Soybeans for November delivery fell for a second day, losing 0.4 percent to $9.475 a bushel in Chicago. As of July 11, 65 percent of the soybean crop in the U.S., the largest exporter, was in good or excellent condition, down from 66 percent a week earlier, the USDA said yesterday. Weighing Up Soybeans inspected for export at U.S. ports more than doubled to 6.5 million bushels in the week ended July 8 from a week earlier, the department said yesterday. “The market is weighing up the outlook for the U.S. crops and what that will mean for the underlying balance sheet,” CWA’s Hassall said, referring to global supply and demand for corn and soybeans. Wheat for September delivery fell for a third day, declining 0.6 percent to $5.325 a bushel in Chicago. Farmers in the U.S., the world’s largest wheat exporter, had harvested 63 percent of the winter varieties of the crop as of July 11, up from 54 percent a week earlier and 61 percent a year ago, the USDA said yesterday. Russia’s worst drought in a decade has damaged more than half of grains planted in 11 regions and hot, dry weather may continue for the rest of this month, Anna Strashnaya, head of agro-meteorological forecasts at the Federal Hydrometeorological Service said July 9. Russia is the world’s third-largest wheat exporter in the 2009-2010 season, according to the USDA. The country’s Agriculture Ministry reduced its forecast for the total grain crop by 5.6 percent to 85 million metric tons on July 5. That compares with last year’s harvest of 97 million tons. The Saratov region, which accounted for 3.2 percent of Russia’s wheat crop last year, reported grain yields at 0.75 tons (1,653 pounds) a hectare last week, compared with 1.4 tons last year. While potential losses to the Russian wheat crop helped pushed prices higher in the past two weeks, global supplies of the grain are more than sufficient to meet demand and that “will limit the upside for the market,” Hassall said. The USDA estimated on July 9 that global wheat production and opening stockpiles will total 854 million tons in the 2010- 2011 season, compared with demand forecast at 667 million tons. India, the world’s second-largest wheat grower, harvested 80.98 million tons of the grain in the year ended June, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said in New Delhi today. That compares with USDA’s 80.68 million-ton estimate. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net

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