Corn futures decreased on concern that prices near their highest level in 30 months may deter buyers. Soybeans and wheat fell. March-delivery corn slipped 0.2 percent to $6.5250 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:41 p.m. Singapore time, reversing a 0.4 percent gain. The contract rose 2 percent yesterday and climbed to a 30-month high on Jan. 19. Corn futures are set for a 0.6 percent advance this week. “Prices have gone up too much,” Eric Bailon, president of Paritas Trading Corp., which imports grain into the Philippines, said by phone from Manila. “All the bad news about supply has already been factored in the price.” Argentina’s corn harvest may drop faster than estimated as drought trims yields and rains forecast in the Pampas over the next week won’t be enough to aid crop development, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange said. Deliveries of grains and soybeans to the nation’s largest ports fell 87 percent yesterday from a year ago, the Rosario Cereals Exchange said. The country’s harvest may be 19.5 million metric tons this season, the Buenos Aires exchange said yesterday, lowering its previous estimate from 20.4 million tons on Jan. 6. Last year’s harvest was about 22.5 tons. The number of trucks carrying cereals and soybeans that arrived at ports located in the area surrounding the city of Rosario fell to 240 yesterday from 1,837 a year earlier, the Rosario exchange said yesterday on its website. Argentine farmers began a week-long protest on Jan. 17 against the government’s export policies, including the restrictions on corn and sunflower shipments. Soybeans for March-delivery were little changed at $14.1375 a bushel at 2:40 p.m. Singapore time, reversing a gain of 0.2 percent. The contract is poised for a weekly drop of 0.6 percent. China Buys China, the world’s biggest soybean importer and consumer, agreed to purchase $1.8 billion of the oilseed from the U.S., said Wang Chao, the vice minister of commerce. The agreements signed yesterday involve about 110 million bushels of soybeans for delivery in the marketing year that ends Aug. 31, said Jim Call, the international marketing chairman of the United Soybean Board, a trade group said. China imported 22.454 million tons of U.S. soybeans in the marketing year that ended Aug. 31, 20 percent more than the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Through the end of November, U.S. exporters sent $9.06 billion in soybeans to China in 2010, up 21 percent from a year earlier, USDA data show. A metric ton of soybeans is equal to 36.7437 bushels, according to the U.S. Grains Council website. World wheat production will reach 647 million tons in 2010- 2011, 3 million tons more than the previous estimate, the International Grains Council said in a report yesterday. Wheat for March delivery lost 0.5 percent to $7.9975 a bushel, trimming the first weekly gain this year to 3.4 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net.

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