Corn Prices at 5-Year High as Flooding Leaves U.S. Plantings Way Behind
June 19th, 2019Via: MarketWatch:
U.S. farmers are millions of acres behind their usual pace of corn planting this spring because of flooding, which may lead to a supply shortage that lifts prices by year end past $5 a bushel to their highest in more than five years.
Corn planted in the 18 states that account for the bulk of U.S. production was at 83% of expected plantings as of the week ended on June 9, significantly below the 99% seen a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some 8.5 million acres in the eastern Corn Belt and 6.5 million acres in the western Corn Belt remain unplanted, according to Peter Meyer, head of grain and oilseed analytics at S&P Global Platts. “By any metric, this is historically the most amount of corn acres left unplanted this late in the season,” he said.
