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U.S. Deluge Means World's Wheat Stash Is Set to Topple Corn

U.S. Deluge Means World's Wheat Stash Is Set to Topple Corn

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s wheat stockpiles are set to trump corn for the first time in nine years, a signal of how the relentless rains hitting the U.S. Midwest are reshaping global grain supplies.

Corn inventories will shrink 15% to a six-year low in the 2019-20 season, the International Grains Council said Thursday. The outlook for U.S. production has worsened after floods roiled plantings and hampered the crop’s early development. Meanwhile, wheat stockpiles are forecast at an all-time high as growers in Europe and the Black Sea region prepare for bumper harvests.

U.S. Deluge Means World's Wheat Stash Is Set to Topple Corn

As corn gets more expensive, livestock are likely to chomp on more wheat as it becomes a more attractive feed ingredient. That will “help cushion the supply shock” and keep corn futures from rising above $5 a bushel in Chicago, Rabobank said in a report Wednesday.

Corn futures have jumped 21% this year to $4.55 a bushel, about double the advance seen in wheat.

While U.S. growers have struggled with bad weather, wheat producers in Europe, Russia and Ukraine have benefited from mostly favorable conditions. A heatwave roiling the region this week isn’t expected to substantially hamper yields, as the crop is largely developed, Rabobank said.

  • Click here to see some estimate revisions from today’s IGC report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Megan Durisin in London at mdurisin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Nicholas Larkin, Liezel Hill

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