Brazil’s bumper corn harvest couldn’t have come at a better time for global food supplies as calamities from war to drought stymie exports from the world’s biggest producers. Corn exports from South American’s biggest nation are on pace to more than double this year to a record 44 million tons, according to Brazil’s grain exporter group Anec. Shipments have accelerated since October, when low-water levels in the Mississippi River snarled US exports. “Brazil has been a savior for tight grains market,” said Vinicius Ito, director at Marex North America in New York. Brazil is already a leader in the soybean market and is gaining relevance in the corn trade as a global shortage of the grain has created an opportunity for the nation to fill the void, he said. Brazil’s monster crop has been key to containing corn prices as shipping bottlenecks in the US and war in Ukraine — the world’s first and fourth-largest suppliers, respectively— leave grains stranded.
Sources: Bloomberg News/Datamar News