Corn Advances as Biggest Exporter Faces ‘Historic Flooding’

Corn rose for a second day after the National Oceanic Atmospheric and Administration said the U.S., the world’s largest exporter of the crop, faces potential “historic flooding” in the coming weeks.

Corn for May delivery added as much as 0.5 percent to $3.685 a bushel in after-hours trading on the Chicago Board of Trade, and was $3.675 a bushel at 10:43 a.m. Singapore time.

The upper Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa are among the states that face above-average flood risk, government forecasters said yesterday. “We are looking at potentially historic flooding in some parts of the country this spring,” Jane Lubchenco, administrator for the NOAA said yesterday. Soybean and corn plantings were delayed by wet weather last year.

“There’s some support there” for grain prices, Michael Pitts, commodity sales director at National Australia Bank, said by phone from Sydney today. Still, he said excessive rains could add to soil moisture, boosting yields, provided flood waters subside before planting.

Corn futures rose to last year’s high $4.7175 a bushel in June after excessive rains in the Midwest, the largest U.S. growing region, delayed planting, raising concern yields may drop and farmers may shift acres to soybeans.

Iowa produces an average of 56 million metric tons of the corn a year, more than any country outside the U.S. other than China, Kevin Rempp, a director of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, which represents farmers in the state, said in September.

Record Flooding

In Fargo, North Dakota, where residents are facing an unprecedented second consecutive year of record flooding, sandbags are being stacked to hold back the Red River of the North and at least two bridges in the state’s largest city have been closed.

“We have over 110 years of records in the Red River valley in North Dakota and Minnesota and we have never seen back-to- back significant, near-record spring floods in consecutive years,” Scott Dummer, a weather service hydrologist, said yesterday.

Soybeans for May delivery added 0.2 percent to $9.47 a bushel at 10:51 a.m. while wheat for delivery in the same month was little changed at $4.8675 a bushel.

By Luzi Ann Javier
Source: Bloomberg