This issue focuses on key developments since June 2013.
Key Messages
- Record global harvests are projected for 2013/14 for all the main cereals.
- Spot prices of maize and wheat have fallen to US$226 a tonne for maize and US$317 a tonne for wheat — now US$116 and US$65 a tonne below their respective peaks in 2012.
- Thai export rice prices have been falling. Thai A1 Super was US$100 less than February, at US$484 a tonne in August. Rice from other exporters is even cheaper: Vietnamese 25% B was US$352 a tonne in July 2013.
- Cereals prices look likely to continue to fall in 2013. Hedge funds and index investors (‘speculators’) are reportedly leaving the market.
Steve Wiggins and Sharada Keats