Wheat, Corn Gain as Japan May Boost Imports Amid Contamination

Wheat and maize increased speculation that the contamination of food in Japan of a damaged nuclear power plant may worsen, increasing imports of cereals Asian nation, and as the dry weather in the U.S. threatened wheat yields.
Wheat for May delivery gained as much as 0.9 percent to $ 7.3975 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $ 7,345 at 2:07 pm in Singapore, scheduled for the first quarterly drop in four years. Corn for May delivery rose 0.3 cent to $ 6.9175 a bushel.
Radioactive contamination in food in Japan is likely to increase, Taku Ohhara, a Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Welfare said yesterday. Japan has been struggling to regain control of the crippled plant Dai-Ichi Fukushima nuclear power, which was damaged by the earthquake of March 11 and the tsunami. 99 products were found to be contaminated in Tokyo and five prefectures in late March 1926, the ministry said.
"Following the contamination of food in Japan, people expect that the country may want more beans" from abroad, Ker Chung Yang, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte, said by telephone from Singapore.
Japan, the largest importer of wheat, the fifth-largest, may buy 5.2 million metric tons this year, according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, which does not break out purchases Member countries of the European Union. The International Grains Council has forecast the same volume of imports from Japan and the USDA.
winter wheat areas in the central plains and southern U.S. have "little chance of significant moisture" within 10 days from March 25, Telvent DTN Inc. said. Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado had fewer than 25 percent of normal precipitation in the last 30 days until last week, according to the National Weather Service show.
"The weather is dictating the movement in wheat, Ker said.
U.S. yields
crop yields in the U.S. this year may be comparable to 2007, when dry weather cut the winter wheat production to 41.7 bushels per acre, Kim Anderson, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, said last week. Since 2000, the national average yield 43.8 bushels, according to the USDA.
The worst drought in 44 years in Texas, the second largest U.S. producer winter wheat crop is harming the state, according to state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon.
U.S. exporterssold 1.25 million tons of corn to unknown buyers, the USDA said March 25. The sale includes 1 million tons for delivery in the 2010-2011 marketing year, which began on 1 September and 250,000 tonnes for the 2011-2012 season.
There is speculation that the sale of corn bound for China or Japan, Ker said today. The senders are probably bringing grain in some of the ports that were not damaged by the earthquake in Japan, he said.
Japan, the largest buyer of maize, had been forecast by the USDA to import 16.1 million tons of grain this year.
Soybeans for May delivery were little changed at $ 13.58 a bushel in Chicago, reducing the loss of this quarter to 3.2 percent.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-28/wheat-corn-gain-as-japan-may-boost-imports-amid-contamination.html)