Corn rose for a second straight day on speculation that a slump in prices this year may stall as farmers begin to plant crops in the U.S., the world’s largest grower and exporter.
Wheat prices posted the biggest gain in almost five weeks as some hedge funds and traders unwound near-record bets on a price slump. Speculative short positions, or wagers on declining prices, more than doubled in the first quarter, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. So-called net-shorts were 56,716 contracts in the week ended March 30, compared with a record 60,457 on Feb. 9.
Cattle futures rose for the third straight day on bets that U.S. meatpacker demand for animals will increase as profit margins improve. Hogs fell from a 12- year high.
Wheat fell to a five-month low after a government report showed U.S. growers may plant more than estimated.
Sugar prices will extend a slump, following the biggest quarterly plunge since 1985, as Brazil and India, the world’s largest producers, harvest bumper crops next season, analysts and traders said.
On March 26, 2010, Viktor Slauta, the Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine, forecasted resowing of 20-25% of winter crops sowing areas.
As of March 29, agrarians of Ukraine sowed spring crops, grains and leguminous plants throughout 640 thsd ha, which totaled 15% of the general forecasted areas, as opposed to 700 thsd ha on the same date of the last year, declared Nikholay Prisyashnuk, the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine.
Soybean, peas and maize will become one of the most prospective crops for the spring sowing campaign, declared Viktor Sytnik, the First Vice-President of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences.
In 2009, the general production of grains and leguminous plants in Ukraine totaled 46.03 mln tonnes in clean weight, a decrease of 13.6% compared to the same index of 2008, declared the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, on March 26.
As of March 25 of the current year, winter grains sowings in Ukraine perished throughout 0.23 mln ha, or nearly 2.6% of the planned sowing areas, informed the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine.