I have been wondering what does WASDE stands for whenever I read some commentary. It was only today then I realized that it means World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE). Basically, the report states the precise export and import amounts of the grains and lists down the major exporting and importing countries before totaling them up to give the world’s supplies and demands. I scanned through the October 2012 World Markets and Trade Report on Grains and there are several noteworthy information in the report. For one, although the US is the largest corn exporter, Brazil, Argentina and Ukraine have been expanding corn production to eat a piece of the high-rising corn price cake. In fact, combined exports from the countries are estimated to be more than that from the US consecutively for two years. In addition, US domestic consumption of corn for the year 2012/13 is predicted at 254,012 thousand metric tons whereas the domestic production is estimated at 272.488 thousand metric tons. Comparing with the year 2011/2012, the domestic production decreased at a larger magnitude (313,918-272,488= 41430 thousand metric tons) than the domestic consumption (278,972-254,012=24960 thousand metric tons). This suggests that the average corn price this year is definitely going to be higher than the average price of last year. Furthermore, US’s corn export would have a hard time to remain competitive with the South African countries.

http://www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/grain.pdf