03/10/2013: Second day of US government shutdown; Brazil tops US in corn exports; Haiti's cereal production

The US Agriculture Department (USDA) has stopped its flood of statistical reports on the second day of a government shutdown.

Inspections of meat are considered among essential services that will continue regardless of the shutdown.

Depending on the length of the shutdown, the USDA may be forced to delay the release of its monthly crop estimates, which are due on October 11, 2013.

"We are going to miss the October crop report, if they shut down too long," said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co. "If you don't have the October crop report, that's really the big one."
Read more...

According to Doane Advisory Service, Brazil has officially passed the US as the world's largest corn exporter, accounting for more than 25 percent of world wide total trade.

If this expansion in Brazil's corn sector continues, it may have a big impact on the US corn market.

The exporter numbers are a result of the expansion of the safarinha or double-crop corn production which accounts for more than half of the 2012-13 crop.
Read more...

Reporting on Haiti's 2013 spring cereal harvests, the FAO has reported that this season resulted in roughly half of the annual production of cereals, mainly maize and sorghum, but only a third of the rice output.

Despite below average precipitation during the sowing period, a lack of tropical storms and flooding in the country has resulted in a recovery of maize yields.
Read more...

Public relations of high-fructose corn syrup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)