Asia crisis hits US maize

By Joanna Levin

THE widespread fear that US maize exports will suffer in the wake of economic woes in Asia is having a major impact on prices.

In addition to export worries, ideal crop growing conditions have boosted expected crop yields at home.

Producers still have a lot of their maize crop to sell and, although many analysts expect maize to hold its ground better than wheat or soyabeans, few analysts are predicting any kind of price rally.

As a result, US maize returns suffered another week of daily losses and hit their lowest level since 1991.

The Chicago September futures contract closed yesterday (Tuesday) at 213.5¢/bushel, unchanged from Monday but down by about 9¢ on the week.