The world desperately needs more grain to help curb food inflation, but there are signs that the key producer, the United States, will ship the smallest amount of wheat in 50 years.
As ProAgro Group reports citing Bloomberg, US wheat is too expensive and sales are slow, the US Department of Agriculture said in its monthly supply and demand report.
Adverse weather conditions in some parts of the U.S. breadbasket are limiting the harvest, and low water levels along the Mississippi River are slowing and making it more expensive to get crops to export terminals. Forecasts for corn, soybean and rice exports were also poor.
The Ministry indicates that US wheat exports fell to a 50-year low.
US wheat shipments fell by 50 million bushels (1.4 million tons) to 775 million (21 million tons), the lowest since 1971. Although the ending stocks were higher than expected, they will remain the lowest since 2007.
