By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) stock was up 2.4% in premarket Monday as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict pushes prices of farm-based commodities to record highs, both the countries being big exporters of many of them.
The price of wheat rocketed past $10 a bushel last week for the first time in more than a decade, according to Bloomberg. Corn also leaped to a nine-year high and soybean oil edged down from a record. Tight supplies, owing to harvest setbacks and labor shortages, had anyway kept corn prices elevated even before the current crisis erupted.
Russia and Ukraine account for about a quarter of global wheat and barley trade and a fifth of corn. The invasion and ensuing sweeping sanctions from the U.S. and its allies in Europe have sent the grain markets into turmoil.
Farming activity in Ukraine has been disturbed, too, as many farmers have rushed to perform military roles. Wheat and barley were sown before winter, but the fate of how much can be gathered now hangs in the balance, Bloomberg said.
Ukraine accounts for around half of global sunflower oil exports and is scheduled to seed the crop April-May. That’s around the same time as corn, part of the nation’s spring planting campaign.
ADM shuttered its facilities in Ukraine in the last week of February as Russia began an invasion of its neighbor. This included an oilseed crush plant and a grain export terminal.