Miller Magazine Issue: 130 October 2020

24 NEWS MILLER / OCtOber 2020 The European Commission (EC) eliminated EU import duties for corn, sorghum and rye on August 27, 2020, only four months after re-introducing duties for the first time since March 2018. The reintroduction of duties in April 2020 were allegedly triggered by the decline in U.S. corn prices after the COVID-19 crisis significantly reduced the demand for U.S. bio-ethanol production. EU eliminates grain import duties On Thursday, August 27, 2020, the EC reviewed EU import duties for maize, sorghum and rye, with Com- mission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1221. The EC set duties at € 0 per metric ton (MT) as of August 27, 2020, only one day after lowering those duties to € 0.26/MT, and down further from € 5.48/ MT imposed since August 12, 2020. The tariff is cal- culated in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) 642/2010 and based on the difference between the European and world reference prices for maize, or the cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) price delive- red to the port of Rotterdam. Import duties for mai- ze, sorghum and rye were reintroduced on April 27, 2020, at € 5.27/MT, the first-time duties were impo- sed since March 2018. This is likely due to the decline in the CIF price of corn in the United States because of the fall in demand for bio-ethanol production, an outcome triggered by the economic fallout of CO- VID-19 crisis. The import duties have fluctuated se- veral times since April. USDA India hikes minimum support prices for 2021 Rabi crops On 21 September 2020, the Government of India approved the increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for the 2021 winter “Rabi” crops, to be planted from October. The MSP for wheat, the main “Rabi” crop, was increased by INR 50 or about 3 percent up from last year to INR 1 975 per quintal (USD 268 per tonne), while the MSP for barley was increased by nearly 5 percent to INR 1 600 per quintal (USD 217 per tonne). MSPs for chickpea, lentils and oilseeds were also raised by 2 percent to 6 percent, depending on the crop. The MSPs are the prices at which the federal Government buys food grains from farmers, aimed to ensure farmers’ profits and boost producti- on. Their revision takes into account, among other factors, the production costs as well as the returns to farmers. Procurement at the new MSPs will begin in April 2021. In 2020, the Gover- nment procured a record high volume of wheat amounting to about 39 million tonnes despite the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown. India’s MY 2019/20 grain production is estimated at more than four percent greater than last year’s record harvest (295.21 MMT), largely fueled by record rice and wheat production due to favorable weather that supported higher planting and record yields of the two crops.