World Agrinews

Corn futures are little changed, set for the first weekly gain in three weeks, after the U.S. pared its forecast for the nation’s inventory of the grain to the smallest since 2007 on higher demand from ethanol producers.

The French government has confirmed its estimate for soft wheat production in 2009-10 at 36.5 million metric tons, data from the Agriculture Ministry's statistics arm show Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to trim its forecast for the 2010-11 U.S. winter wheat crop from last month, with analysts projecting a drop in hard red winter wheat production.

China’s corn production this year may increase 2.5 percent from 2009 to 168 million metric tons as farmers boost plantings, the China National Grain & Oils Information Center said.