Chinese Magic

22/11/10 -- China has ample stocks of corn and guess what? That's right, the lucky old Chinese are to be blessed with yet another bumper crop this year, according to the deputy director of the State Administration of Grain.

That bumper crop comes in on the back of last season's bumper crop, how convenient is that? It was something of a surprise how they managed to pull off a bumper crop last year, seeing as many areas had the worst drought in a century, but pull it off they did.

With all this corn about them it is slightly surprising then that the price keeps going up - even though the government have auctioned off more than 40 million tonnes of the stuff in the last twelve months in an effort to keep prices down.

It's even more surprising that they are importing the stuff in this time of plenty isn't it?

No wonder that I'm banned over there.

Meanwhile, as part of their effort to rein in rising commodity prices, margin requirements on soymeal and soyoil traded on the Dalian Exchange are to be raised with immediate effect from 5% to 7%.