Corn gained for a third consecutive day, maintaining a premium over the most-active wheat contract, on concerns about low stockpiles and weather conditions in the U.S., the world’s top exporter. Corn for July climbed as much as 0.7 percent to $7.69 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, and was at $7.665 at 10:38 a.m. in Singapore while wheat was at $7.53, rising 0.7 percent. Corn climbed by the exchange limit of 30 cents yesterday and has risen 22 percent this year to become the best agricultural commodity among 19-item Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index. In a report due today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture may cut its forecast of global corn reserves before this year’s Northern Hemisphere harvest to 121.46 million metric tons, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 15 analysts. That would be down 17 percent from last year, the biggest drop since 1994, and would leave supplies at 14.5 percent of estimated consumption, the lowest ratio since 1974, government data show. “Current prices are justified, given that we are still at the beginning of the season,” Victor Thianpiriya, an analyst at Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp. in Melbourne, said today. “We need perfect weather this year. If the weather in the U.S. turns out to be too dry, we could see prices going higher.” Delayed Planting Wet weather in the U.S. earlier this year delayed corn planting, while drought in China and Europe is expected to hurt wheat production. World wheat output will be lower than previously expected, the International Grains Council reported this week, forecasting a crop of 663 million tons, 4 million tons below its outlook from two weeks earlier on downgrades for France, Germany and the U.K. U.S. farmers may harvest 1.391 billion bushels of winter wheat, the smallest crop in five years, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts before the USDA report due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. Farmers are collecting grain in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas after planting in September and October. Large areas of those states had less than half of the normal amount of rain in the past 60 days, National Weather Service data show. Soybeans for July delivery were little changed at $13.92 a bushel at 11:09 a.m. in Singapore. The oilseed has dropped 0.8 percent this year. Soybeans have lagged behind corn on speculation that growers are switching to soybeans after wet weather delayed corn sowing. Soybeans can be sown until late June. To contact the reporter on this story: Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in Singapore at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

Source