By Kirk Maltais
Brazil’s Conab made cuts to its outlook for both corn and soybeans production in 2023/24 – reducing its soybean outlook to 149.4 million tons and its corn outlook down to 113.7 million tons.
On Thursday, Brazil’s crop agency reduced its outlook for both crops based on ‘adverse weather’ affecting crops – specifically a pattern of “irregular and poorly distributed rains” along with long periods of dryness.
In its previous report, Conab had forecast soybean production at 155.3 million tons and corn production at 117.6 million tons. Although the cuts made by Conab are large and exceeded trader forecasts, many grain traders are looking to Argentina to cover the losses in Brazil.
Grain futures are mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade, following the release of Conab’s data. The USDA will release its own outlook for the country in today’s WASDE report, which could either accelerate or slow down futures movement. In pre-market trading, most-active CBOT corn is up 0.2%, soybeans are up 0.4%, and wheat is down 1.4%.
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