Corn Set for Biggest Annual Drop Since 1960

Corn headed for the biggest annual drop since at least 1960 and wheat tumbled the most in five years as grain production climbs to records worldwide and outpaces demand for food, livestock feed and use in biofuels.


Corn plunged 39 percent in 2013, the worst performance among 24 commodities on the Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge, as the U.S. harvest rose to a record, recovering from the prior season when crops were hurt by the worst drought since the 1930s. Farmers worldwide are producing record amounts of everything from soybeans to wheat, leaving food prices tracked by the United Nations 13 percent below an all-time high in 2011 and spurring banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to predict further declines in crop prices in 2014.