Chicago soybean futures edged down on Monday to trade near a one-week low as weather forecasts suggested corp conditions would be dry enough this week to let farmers make headway in gathering what is expected to be a record US crop.
Heavy rains and flooding covered a broad area of the northern Midwest this past week. This halted the harvest of corn and soybeans and forced the closure of at least two Iowa crop processing plants. Parts of northern Iowa and southern Minnesota received several inches of rain at midweek; two-day rain totals topped 10 inches in some areas. The region is expected to see two days of drier weather before more rain moves in this week.
Cargill stopped taking deliveries of corn and soybeans at its processing plants in Cedar Rapids, IA due to flooding in the area. The soy plant is scheduled to be closed through Wednesday. Farmers are waiting for their fields to dry out before they can resume harvest.
The US Justice Department is looking into concerns that global consolidation among major seed and agricultural chemical companies may squeeze supplies of the building blocks for widely used genetically modified seeds, a farm group said. These federal inquiries started after Dow Chemical said in December that it would seek to merge with DuPont in a $130 billion deal.
Russian wheat export prices rose last week for the first time since mid-August, buoyed by demand from Egypt after it dropped its policy of not importing wheat containing the ergot fungus, agricultural consultancy IKAR said. Russia exported 7.8 million tonnes of wheat between July 1 and Sept 21, the agriculture ministry said. Grain exports were down 9 percent year on year.
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