Canada feeds European corn appetite as tariff war shrinks U.S. sales

Canadian corn is flowing into Europe at the fastest pace in four years, helped by retaliatory tariffs against the United States by the European Union that has shut American corn out of the bloc, traders said.

Corn shipments to western European countries rose 85 percent year over year during the nine months from the start of Canada’s corn marketing year on Sept. 1, and are on pace for a total of 1.2 million tonnes in 2017/18, the most since 2013/14, according to Canadian government data.

Canada, the fourth-largest wheat shipper, accounted last year for less than 1 percent of the world’s corn exports.

Its sales to Europe are increasing, however, thanks to low freight costs and a Canada-European Union free trade deal that took effect in 2017, giving Canadian corn tariff-free access to Europe...

This was excerpted from the 24 July 2018 edition of Reuters Canada.