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Strong harvest in Brazil could increase global corn competition

A market advisor says dry weather in Brazil hasn’t had a significant impact on the country’s expected record corn crop.

“It wasn’t a perfect year by any means, but it wasn’t bad,” she says. 

Naomi Blohm with Total Farm Marketing says Brazil is entering harvest, which could ramp up global competition for U.S. crops.

“They’re actually just starting to harvest some of that safrinha corn,” she says. “It will be ready to export in August. This is when Brazil typically becomes a larger competitor than the United States. We’ll want to be watching to see if China ramps up purchases of South American corn.”

But, she says all eyes remain on the weather.

“Global ending stocks of corn are just starting to edge lower because the demand has been so good,” she says. “If the United States has a weather issue this summer, or if Brazil has any weather issues in the coming year, corn prices for 26-27 could start to improve.”

Blohm says if realized, this would be Brazil’s second largest corn crop on record.

AUDIO: Naomi Blohm, Total Farm Marketing