Weather concerns that have driven the grains all week are no less bullish this morning, but the outside environment has given the trade no choice; slow economies in the U.S. and China have energies & equities on the run, while the dollar is surging back towards last Friday’s nearly two-year top.

South Korea bought 69k tonnes of U.S. corn at $279/tonne for November arrival this morning, but they also made an interesting purchase of 39k tonnes of Indian corn, at just under $260/tonne for July shipment. Korean millers also passed on a tender to import 23,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat citing high prices and “other issues”, but they’ll re-tender for the same number next week.

French crop office, FranceAgriMer, estimated that the country’s farmers will increase corn acreage by over 6% this year, to 1.64 million hectares (4.05 mln acres), while soft wheat plantings fall over 5% to 4.72 mln ha.

The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange yesterday cut their 2012/13 wheat plantings estimate by 200,000 hectares, to 3.8 mln ha (9.4 million acres); that’s down from 4.6 mln ha last year and 5.9 mln ha as recently as 2007/08, as farmers shift to other crops due to government controls on exports.

Matt Zeller