China Will Import Less Corn

The USDA's new estimate of China's corn imports this season is a lot different from the old estimate. USDA World Outlook Board Chairman Gerry Bange says there is a 2 million ton difference. The report released last Friday estimated 5 million tons of corn imports for China rather than the previous 7 million -- being imported from all countries.

Bange says there are several reasons for the cut back

Bange: "We are now know that they have a very, very large crop and also they are rejecting shipments relative to the GMO issue. So these two things combined suggest to us that they are going to import considerably less in the 2013-14 year than we previously thought."

Quite a bit of China's imported corn come from the U.S. but Bange says that the change in imported corn needs by China will not likely affect overall U.S. corn export. He says that usually in a case like this that the exports tend to reshuffle. Corn will go to other destinations, in fact some corn that was headed to China has changed destinations to other countries. With that in mind, Bange says that the U.S. corn exports forecast remained the same at 1.5 billion bushels which is almost double last year's corn exports.

Bange shares more details about the corn crop in China.

Bange: "It appears that in 2013-14 China has produced a crop about 217 million tons which is very, very large crop -- up 6 million tons from our previous forecast and up 6 percent from last year."