U.S. corn and soybean stocks rose to multi-year highs in the 2016/17 season, which ended Sept. 1, as ample domestic supply outstripped robust demand, the country's government said on Friday. In its quarterly inventory report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said domestic corn reserves rose 32 percent from a year ago to 2.295 billion bushels, the highest level since 1988.
Soybean stocks, which grew 53 percent to 301 million bushels, reached a ten-year high. Corn and soybean futures contracts began to rise shortly after the report, as stocks of these grains came below the floor of projections in a Reuters survey.
Analyst numbers ranged from 2.310 billion to 2.450 billion bushels for corn stocks and 321 million to 363 million bushels for soybean stocks. At the same time, wheat reserves as of September 1 fell to 2.253 billion bushels from 2.545 billion a year earlier, as U.S. production declined amid growing global competition. The USDA projected the 2017/18 domestic wheat crop at 1.741 billion bushels, the lowest in 15 years.
Additional reporting by Michael Hirtzer in Chicago
Source: Agrolink
