China forecasts corn imports at decade low, spooking exporters

China's forecast on Thursday of a drop in corn imports to their lowest in at least a decade may end a years-long bonanza for global merchants and producers as maize prices in the world's biggest grains market have dropped below global prices.

In its monthly crop report, the Ministry of Agriculture forecast imports for the 2016/2017 crop year that ends in September as low as 800,000 tonnes, down 200,000 from last month's estimate.

That would be down from 3.2 million tonnes for the calendar year 2016 and a third of the average for the past decade.