Ukraine and Russia face tough competition on world corn market.

Growing supply from South American countries adversely affected deliveries not only from the top corn exporter—the U.S. (down 37% against September-November 2016/17)—but also from Ukraine (-40%) and Russia (-29%). The first three months of the 2017/18 season marked by a redistribution of key players in the world corn market. This is no surprise since, in September-November 2017 alone, Brazil exported 86% of the volume it shipped abroad for the whole last season (16.77 MMT in September-August 2016/17). So, it beat the U.S. into second place. Throughout the 2016/17 season, Ukraine boldly competed with Argentina for the title of the second top exporter (Argentine exports totaled some 22.6 MMT in September-August). However, in view of an aggressive price policy of South American countries, Ukraine will close MY 2017/18 just at the fourth position. During harvesting in Ukraine and Russia, Brazil and Argentina managed to reduce the export price for their corn to a greater degree. In September 2017, the average prices of Argentine and Brazilian offers were $147/MT FOB (down $21/MT from September 2016) and $158/MT FOB (down $32/MT), respectively.