Weather concerns prevent stronger fall of agricultural prices

A firmer U.S. dollar put pressure on agriculturals at the end of last week, though concerns about the weather prevented any more major price falls. It is for example too dry in the winter wheat growing areas in the US Midwest, which is likely to have a negative impact on plant development ahead of the period of winter dormancy. 

Soybean planting in Brazil's key Mato Grosso growing region is being hampered by the dry conditions. What is more, weather forecasts are predicting a continued dry spell. By contrast, the corn price profited from storms in the US Midwest growing regions in the wake of Hurricane Patricia, as this delayed harvesting. It is too early to say whether the corn plants also suffered damage. Cotton was hardly able to recover from the sharp price fall of the day before despite Texas - the most important US growing state - being particularly hard-hit by the storms. 

"Clearly the crops that have not yet been harvested are not expected to have suffered significant damage or reduced quality. Furthermore, the weak export figures reported by the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday are still having after-effects, as they are fuelling new concerns about demand: virtually none of the 96,000 bales sold last week was exported to China, hitherto the most important consumer of US cotton", notes Commerzbank.