Dan Basse addresses Cereals 2012

What a start to Cereals 2012!

Agrii, the new UK company that combines Masstock and UAP under one name called Agri Intelligence, hosted a leading commentator and adviser to the UK and Chinese governments, Dan Basse to address Cereal 2012 visitors on World Food Supply and Demand.

He addressed global crop marketing prospects saying the key factors driving prices for the foreseeable future would be a combination of weather (in terms of drought and moisture stress in key production regions), biofuels and their demand for agrimony-based feedstocks and South East Asia and in particular China.

Caption: Dan Basse visits the GFMT and IMD stand at Cereals 2012. He was getting a feel for UK cereal farming and the UK weather after delivering a stimulation hour-long presentation on meeting growing world food demand

He focused much of his comments around wheat supply and demand taking in corn and soybean production to complete a pictured that suggested a current volatile period for grain prices and a bullish period ahead for wheat in particular.

Coming to the UK from his home town Chicago, USA, Mr Basse who is president of AgResource, said two-thirds of a cereal farmer's net revenue in the USA now arises from marketing activities. He also mentioned, based on his calculations, that GM technology in grain production had not delivered any corresponding increases in yields, however they had taken some of the volatility out of seasonal variation in output.

GFMT will be reporting Mr Basse's presentation in more detail in its up-coming edition.