Prices of Soybean, Soybean Meal and Corn have slightly increased in the month of March due to smaller-than-expected U.S. planting intentions. Marine and Animal Protein prices also did not change significantly during the month.

The month end saw an increase of 3.3% in the prices of US Soybean, an increase of 0.6% in the prices of US Soybean Meal and an increase of 6.06% in the prices of US Corn.

Clearly, the charts show that there was a kind of slowdown in the prices but they increased on the last day of the month after the U.S. Agriculture Department released smaller-than-expected U.S. planting intentions. So, this was a supply side phenomenon.

The demand side phenomenon is the increasing incidences of ASF in China, due to which there is caution in the air. This is the caution which we are witnessing in the prices since the beginning of the quarter.

The Fish Meal prices have remained flat or softened in some cases as per the reports. The probability of the price increase is high in coming weeks as Aquafeed production speeds up.
The prices of animal proteins from Australia, USA and Europe increased to an extent of 3-4% effectively. The MBMs slid down a little (effect of SBM coming down a bit) but there was no change in the end user price because of volatile freight situation.

New quarter begins and clearly there is a lot of steam left in China’s procurement engine provided ASF incidences don’t increase drastically. Expect the prices to go up otherwise and keep an eye on covid-19 situation.

About the Author: 

Ashish Kulshrestha is Managing Director (Asia-Pacific) at GePro Geflügel-Protein Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and is based out of Bangkok, Thailand. GePro is one of the leading protein suppliers for the Feed Industry.

Title Photo by eskay lim on Unsplash