| "Stocks have reached an all-time high and this is going to hit the market," a leading trader said. |
| "There were rumours earlier in the day that production will be unchanged and stocks will not go very high, but it has happened the other way round," he added. |
| A Reuters poll last week showed palm oil reserves up 5.4 per cent to touch 1.775 million tonne, above the previous peak of 1.684 million reached in August. |
| FAO cuts world cereals output forecast |
| United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has cut its previous forecast for 2006 world cereal production by 8 million tonne to 2.013 billion tonne. |
| "Exceptionally hot and dry weather is adversely affecting the wheat crops in Australia, Argentina and Brazil, while drier-than-normal weather in parts of South Asia is also raising some concern for the second 2006 paddy crop," FAO said in its report on crop prospects and food situation. |
| FAO has called for a closer monitoring of the world food situation on account of low supplies. Forty countries are facing food emergencies and require external assistance, FAO said. The Darfur region in Sudan remains the most critical, it said. |
| Indonesian palm oil prices down |
| Indonesian palm oil prices were mostly lower on Wednesday, dragged down by losses in Malaysian crude palm oil futures and soyoil, traders said. |
| In North Sumatra's Medan, the main port for palm oil exports, crude palm oil fell to 4,180 rupiah ($0.453) per kg from 4,200-4,225 on Tuesday. |
| "The market is tracking losses in Malaysia and soyoil prices in Chicago," a Medan-based trader said, adding 1,000 tonne of crude palm oil changed hands. |
| By the midday break the benchmark third-month December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives had dropped 5 ringgit to 1,553 ringgit a tonne ($420). On Tuesday November soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade closed 14 cents lower at $5.60-1/2 per bushel-near a 50-day moving average of $5.59-3/4. |
| 490,000 tn mustard stock with Nafed |
| The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation is still left with 2.52 million tonne of mustard seeds out of the total stock procured during the rabi seasons of 2005 and 2006, a senior official said on Wednesday. |
| Nafed had procured around 2.1 million tonne of mustard seeds in 2005 and 2.25 million tonne in 2006 under the price support scheme of the central government due to bumper mustard production. |
| In India mustard is sown around 0ctober and harvested from February. |
| "Out of the old carryover stocks we have sold around 1.4 mln tn of mustard, both, in the form of oil and seeds. From the new stocks, till date, we have sold around 216,000 tonne of mustard," the official said. |
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