Fees
As prices have firmed since February 26th, many of our clients have had conversations with merchandisers about marketing tools. From Nebraska to Upstate New York, there has been a big move to add or increase fees to initiate HTA contracts. For many years, some merchandisers had a service fee of 1 to 4¢ per bushel for HTA contracts. Many merchandisers who never charged HTA fees in the past are now and many of those who had been charging HTA fees upped the fees to as much as 13¢ a bushel… That would be The Anderson’s in the Michigan and Ohio border area. An elevator in Upstate New York went from no charge to 8¢ and many in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, The Dakotas and Minnesota have done the same, but not so steep for the most part. They must have come to this decision at the National Grain & Feed Association annual meeting in March.
Highlights
The nation’s corn crop is 36% in the ground; the market expected 39%, same as the five-year average pace.
Soybeans are 25% planted, 3% less than the market expected, but 4% more than the average pace.
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Spring wheat plantings are 47% complete, 2% more than the market expected and 16% ahead of the 5-year average.
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Winter wheat ratings improved 1% to 50% good or excellent; the market expected another week of decline.
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Yesterday afternoon, Hamas said it has accepted a cease fire agreement presented by Qatari and Egyptian negotiators. Israel has not commented on it, but did start its military campaign against Hamas in Rafah as they said they would two weeks ago.