Price difference corn and wheat explodes

The price differential between corn and wheat had widened to a record. About
18% of last year’s world wheat crop was fed to livestock and
poultry.

Corn exporters in the US, the biggest producer of the grain,
reported sales of 2.03 million metric tons in the week ended Sept. 13, almost
double the previous week and the highest since January 2006.

Corn exports
are on the rise and the drop in the dollar will help boost sales.

Wheat
price has more than doubled in the past year. Global demand is forecast to
exceed output for the seventh time in eight years.

Wheat was valued at
2.3 times higher than corn, up from the 1.1 ratio in February. The record was
2.6 on Sept. 11.

Corn prices jumped this week after China said it will
encourage more imports and less production of fuel made from the
grain.

China will restrict industrial use of the grain because domestic
supplies may fall short of demand for livestock feed, the National Development
and Reform Commission said.

China, the world’s biggest pork producer and
consumer, will spend 1.5 billion yuan ($200 million) in the main hog-producing
regions to boost output and ease a national shortage of the meat, the government
said .last week.