Corn rose for a second session on speculation that improving global growth will boost demand for food, animal feed and fuel made from the biggest U.S. crop.
Ukraine is likely to export in December no more than 1.5 million metric tons of grain, down from the average 2 million tons a month this marketing year, the Ukrainian Grain Association announced Monday.
Ukraine harvested 48.5 million metric tons of grain to Dec. 17 on 15.47 million hectares, or 99.9% of the total area to be harvested, with the average yield of 3.13 tons a hectare, the Agriculture Ministry said Friday.
Sugar futures jumped to the highest price since 1981 in New York on speculation that supplies will tighten as demand increases and output falls short of forecasts in Brazil and India, the biggest producers.
Corn and soybean futures plunged the most since October as a rallying dollar reduced the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment.
Soybeans climbed for a fourth day in Chicago on signs of Chinese demand for U.S. supplies of the oilseed. March-delivery soybeans rose 0.5 percent to $10.675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 12:48 p.m. Paris time. The contract climbed to $10.7475 a bushel yesterday, the highest price since Dec. 1.
Louis Dreyfus Commodities Ukraine, a Ukrainian daughter company of one of the largest grain trading companies in the world - Louis Dreyfus Negoce S.A. (France) - has stopped purchasing grain at Ukrainian elevators.
Ukraine is to attempt to reverse a long-running fall in sugar beet production which has turned the country into a sugar importer at a time of soaring prices. Kiev is to encourage farmers to raise beet plantings by 37% in 2010, to help boost domestic sugar output by some 80% to 2.5m tonnes, deputy farm minister Ivan Demchak said, according to the Kommersant newspaper.
France has declined to invite the U.K. government to a meeting aimed at building protection for European Union farm spending, saying it would be willing to discuss the meeting’s conclusions, the Financial Times reports on its Web site.
Soybeans fell the most in four sessions on speculation that China, the world’s biggest importer, may shift from U.S. supplies to shipments from South America, where farmers begin harvesting in February.
Brazil and Argentina, the two biggest soybean growers after the U.S., may produce a record 116 million metric tons next year, up 30 percent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. Brazil will harvest 64.6 million tons, the most ever and up from 57.2 million this year, the Agriculture Ministry said today.