Global maize production in the 2020-21 marketing year has been revised downward by 10 million tonnes.

The revisions were made in the latest International Grains Council (IGC) monthly grain market report. The global maize harvest now stands at 1.146 billion tonnes.

The reduction mainly stemmed from reduced crop outlooks in the United States, Ukraine and EU.

The US maize crop, which is the world's largest producer, was pegged at 368.5 million tonnes. This is down from a previous forecast of 373.9 million tonnes.

In the EU, the maize crop forecast was cut to 60.1 million tonnes from 62.6 million. This was driven by a downward revision for Romania's crop to 7.1 million tonnes from 10.4 million.

The IGC states that drought has reduced the maize harvest outlook in both Romania and Ukraine this year. Ukraine's crop was pegged at 30 million tonnes, down from a previous forecast of 33 million.

The rise of Chinese imports

China has been aggressively buying maize over the past number of months due to rising feed grain demand as the country's swine industry recovers from African swine fever.

The IGC also raised its forecast for China's maize imports in the 2020/21 season to 16 million tonnes from a previous projection of 8 million tonnes.

The IGC raised its forecast for 2020/21 world wheat production by 1 million tonnes to 765 million tonnes.

China's wheat import forecast was raised slightly to 7.8 million tonnes from a previous projection of 7.3 million.