The July corn contract traded on Brazilian Stock Exchange (B3) Corn closed this Monday (18) with a slight increase of 0.40%, quoted at R$ 67.07/sack. The September contract advanced 0.33%, to R$ 69.86/sack. In this trading session, domestic prices followed the surge of more than 4% in the cereal on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). There, the appreciation of oil in the international market and the announcement by the White House that China will buy at least US$ 17 billion in agricultural products from the United States each year until 2028 had an impact. Although the Asian country is not a direct importer of US corn – as it is of soybeans –, the negotiations with Beijing also include the resumption of poultry imports and the rehabilitation of more than 400 meat processing plants to export to the Chinese market, which may indirectly increase the demand for corn. Larger gains, however, were limited by the devaluation of the dollar against the real, a factor that reduces the competitiveness of Brazilian corn destined for export. Near the close of trading on the B3 (Brazilian Stock Exchange), the exchange rate fell 1.20%, to R$ 5.00. The Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex) recently announced that Brazil exported 34,400 tons of corn in the week ending May 15, a volume lower than the 100,400 tons registered in the previous week. The market was also focused on the agricultural sector, especially the imminent start of the winter corn harvest in the Center-South region, which should increase the domestic availability of the cereal in the coming months. The harvesting of the first crop, in turn, is practically finished in the main producing states, with only a few areas still to be harvested in Goiás and Minas Gerais.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.