Corn export may more than triple at 2.5 mt this year: USGC

Corn export from India may more than triple to 2.5 million tonnes in 2010-11, buoyed by estimates of a record domestic output and scope of higher global prices, an international body USGC said today. 

The country had shipped about 0.7 million tonnes of corn, also known as maize, last year, the US Grains Council (USGC) said quoting a traders' report. 

According to the government's second advance estimate, corn output is expected to touch a record 20.03 million tonnes in 2010-11, higher than the demand of 17-18 million tonnes.

"Traders expect corn exports to be 2.5 million tonnes in the 2010-11 marketing year (October-September) because of a record crop output and firm global price trend," USGC India representative Amit Sachdev said.     

Presently, global corn prices in Chicago have firmed up due to tight supply in the US and likely crop damage in Argentina due to La Nina weather pattern, he said.

The supply-demand gap of corn in the world is about two million tonnes this year, he added.

Last week, the US government projected its closing corn stock at 17.14 million tonnes, the lowest in around 15 years, as record quantity of the crop is used to make ethanol.  

Argentina's corn output is expected to be down by 17 per cent at 19.5 million tonnes this year, a trade report said. The US and Argentina are the world's two corn exporters. On the Chicago Board of Trade, May-delivery corn was up at $7.046 a bushel (Rs 9,620 per tonne) today.

Besides global market, domestic prices have also been on a rise because of higher domestic and export demand.  

At present, corn prices are ruling firm at Rs 10,650 per tonne in Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh, the country's largest wholesale corn market.