Maize prices remain stable on availability of stocks: USGC

Mumbai, Aug 17 (PTI) Maize prices in India remained stableduring the last week due to availability of stock with thetraders, according to US Grains Council. "Corn prices in India have more or remained stable on spotbasis. There is still some maize with stockists and with earlymaize planted in areas, which received good pre-monsoon rains,arrivals could start early in mid-September, which will helpstabilise prices further," USGC Representative for India,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Amit Sachdev said. Spot prices in Nizamabad was down 0.82 per cent at Rs17,251 per tonne, Davangere at Rs 17,900, Karimnagar down 0.37per cent at Rs 17,600, Sangli up 1.08 per cent at Rs 18,800and Gulabbagh up 1.05 per cent at Rs 15,664. Current delivered prices of maize to Gujarat and TamilNadu still remained high ranging Rs 18,000-18,500 per tonneand it is difficult to pass this price increase to theconsumers in the form of increased egg, meat and milk prices,Sachdev said. Globally, Sachdev said, while there have been somespeculation that the US corn crop could suffer due to dryweather, in reality it does not seem so and 76 per cent ofcrop is rated as good to excellent and 19 per cent as fair. US farmers have planted 94.1 million acres of corn and itis expected that 86.6 million acres will be harvested, headded. By a rough estimate if the productivity is 4.26 tonne peracre, the US corn production could be 369.53 million tonne,possibly the highest in history, he said. PTI SM NRBABKSRE