The General Statistics Office of Vietnam released the trade volume estimates for September, which show that coffee shipments rose to 52kt, up 3% compared to 50.9kt reported a year ago. However, cumulative coffee exports have dropped by 11.5% year-on-year to 1.1mt over the first nine months of this year. The decline in exports could be largely attributed to the drought conditions in the country.
The latest data from the Brazilian Trade Ministry shows that Brazil’s soybean exports fell 4.5% YoY to 6.1mt in September. China has taken steps to protect domestic farmers by limiting the overseas purchases of grains as the domestic warehouses have plenty of grains; this could have weighed on Brazil’s exports. Similarly, corn exports fell to 6.4mt for the period, down 26.6% compared to a year ago.
Recent data from France’s Agriculture Ministry shows that 1% of soft wheat has been planted as of 30 September, slightly lower than the five-year average. Meanwhile, 2% of the corn crop has been harvested, significantly down from the five-year average of 26%, while 79% of the corn crop is in good condition for the above-mentioned period, in line with the previous week and below the 83% seen at the same stage last year.
The latest CFTC data show that money managers decreased their net short position in CBOT corn significantly by 63,000 lots for a second consecutive week to 67,699 lots (least bearish since 8 August 2023) as of 1 October. The move was dominated by falling shorts positions with gross shorts decreasing by 59,956 lots to 266,155 lots. Similarly, speculators reduced their net bearish bets in wheat by 3,516 over the last week, leaving them with a net short position of 22,953 lots, the least bearish bets since 18 October 2022. The net speculative short positions in CBOT soybean fell drastically by 40,092 lots for a sixth consecutive week to 34,886 lots over the last reporting week following a fall in gross shorts by 23,864 lots to 111,765 lots.