Corn is getting some bad news from Tokyo; the Japanese are contracting to buy 1 million metric tons of corn from South America. Japan is the number one customer of U.S. corn, accounting for about 24 percent of the $11 billion in American corn exports. Iowa annually is the nation’s largest corn producing state. But Japanese officials this week announced a 1 million metric ton purchase from South America, which has begun to harvest what is expected to be a big crop in Brazil and Argentina. Japanese agriculture ministers told Business Week of their concerns about the quality of the U.S. crop, which was harvested late last year and has above-average moisture content. The Japanese report is another piece of negative news for corn, on top of a U. S. Department of Agriculture estimate that U.S. farmers this year will plant about 1.5 million acres more corn this year than the 87 million they planted last year. The U. S. already is going into spring planting season with a carryover of last year’s crop totalling more than 1.7 billion bushels. That amounts to about two-thirds of a typical Iowa corn crop. News like that has driven corn prices down to $3.53 per bushel in overnight markets and corn is expected to fall lower when floor trading begins on the Chicago Board of Trade. Commodity trader Tomm Pftizenmaier of Des Moines wrote Friday morning "Japan (our biggest customer) announced 1 million metric ton purchase from South America. That us business that would normally have come the
Agro Perspectiva
