US says poor weather to pinch world's silos

September 17, 1980

World grain supplies will fall to the lowest level in five years because adverse weather has hurt crops in several important countries, a US Agriculture Department report predicts. In the past month, the supply outlook has tightened , with drought reducing the US corn crop, heavy rains damaging china's rice crop , and losses expected during the grain harvest in the Soviet Union. The report estimates world grain supplies next June 30 at 191 million tons, down from about 202 tons this summer. Most of the shortage will be in coarse grains, used mainly for livestock feed.