Friday May 1, 2020

• Chinese buying fueled excitement in the bean industry yesterday only to have the rug pulled out from under it today 
• Trump came out yesterday sharing his belief that China intentionally started the coronavirus pandemic as a means at which to harm the U.S. – and because of those actions he is considering implying new tariffs on Chinese goods 
  • This would almost certainly nullify the phase one trade deal just passed earlier this year 
• Buenos Aired Grains Exchange estimates the Argentine soybean crop at 68% harvested with corn 37% complete
• International Grains Council updated their global wheat production for 2020/21, lowering production by 4 MMT to 764 MMT due to drought losses in Europe and Black Sea region
  • Still ahead of previous years production of 762 MMT
• I.G.C. also updated their global corn production estimate to 1.458 Billion MT
  • up only 1 MMT from previous estimate but a substantial increase from 2019/20’s production of 1.119 billion MT
• A beef plant in Colorado re-opened last Friday after a two week closure in response to the COVID outbreak and has seen a surge in cases since re opening 
  • Confirmed cases in workers moved from 120 on Sunday to 245 by Wednesday showing how serious the crisis is and the dangers workers are facing going back to their jobs