Corn is popping? WSJ

Ryan Dezember and Ryan Maltais, WSJ, have a nice piece on the corn rally with the headline, “Corn is the Latest Commodity to Pop”, here…

”Farmers have a few factors to thank for high prices.

China is on a corn-buying binge while racing to fatten millions of hogsto replace the pigs it had to kill during an outbreak of African swine fever before the pandemic. China is expected this year to import about four times what it normally buys from abroad, most of it from U.S. farmers.

Corn-growing regions of South America are parched. Brazil expects a meager safrinha, or second crop, which will reduce its export. In Argentina, the Paraná River is too shallow for fully loaded boats to pass from the country’s interior to Atlantic shipping lanes.

At home, the reopening economy means more drivers and greater demand for the corn that becomes ethanol and is blended into gasoline.”