Argentine dryness worries continue to lift soya bean and corn futures. Soya bean futures for March rose 1.4% to $9.83/bushel in Chicago, jumping back above 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

Beijing looks set to lift its embargo on British beef imports within the next six months. The embargo came in about 20 years ago in the wake of the BSE crisis. The move could be worth £250m to British farmers in the first five years.

A record 2.6bn tonne world grain crop, up 1.3%, will mean a bigger supply cushion at the end of the 2017/2018 marketing year, according to the FAO. The increase was driven by higher maize output in China. The stocks-to-use ratio is expected to rise to its highest level in 16 years.

The FAO’s dairy price index fell by 2.4% on the month, driven by lower international prices for butter and cheese. This was spurred by abundant supplies in the northern hemisphere and Australia.