November 18, 2008
South Korean feed companies seeking grains for March ''09
Most South Korean feed mills completed soymeal, corn and feed wheat purchases for up to February 2009 earlier this month and will likely start buying for March shipments this week onward, a senior feed mill executive said Monday (November 17).
"Feed mills are now considering buying for March shipments," said Je Hoon Lee, a feed buying manager affiliated with the Major Feedmill Group, one of the two top feed buying associations in South Korea, the other being the Korea Feed Association.
Je Hoon said feed wheat is currently looking more attractive than feed corn. While feed wheat from Ukraine costs around US$150 a tonne, cost and freight, the cheapest corn - from South America - is available at US$190/tonne. Both commodities can largely be substituted for each other in feed formulations.
While feed mills are planning to buying feed wheat and some corn this week onward, they are likely to hold back on soy meal imports, Je Hoon said.
"Right now, India is selling the cheapest soy meal, at around US$310/tonne, which is US$50 cheaper than US soymeal. But India is still harvesting its soy crop, so if we hold back for some more weeks we could get better deals," said Je Hoon.
