Chad Smith, NAFB News Service

Chinese demand for corn will continue rising, with imports from the U.S. likely to improve in future years. University of Illinois economists say China was self-sufficient in corn production until 2015 and then relied on imports from Ukraine until 2019. The lower corn output over the last year in Ukraine forced China to turn to the U.S. for additional corn supplies. Economists Scott Irwin and Joe Janzen with the University of Illinois say China will likely increase domestic corn production, boost imports from overseas sellers, and dig into its stockpiles this year. “If Ukrainian production returns to normal and the Brazilian corn price is competitive with the U.S., both of which appear likely, U.S. exports of corn to China are likely to be lower in 2021-2022 than what’s projected for the current marketing year,” they say. “Even so, U.S. corn exports to China will likely be higher than in previous years.” The economists say they expect U.S. corn acreage to drop by 1.1 million acres to a total of 90.9 million next year, while soybean acres will rise 7.7 million acres to 90.8 million. Their report says ending stockpiles will have difficulty increasing much in the 2020-2021 marketing year.