Corn and maize
Corn is the world's largest crop by volume and mostly not a food. It is animal feed and motor fuel, which is why its price answers to livestock margins and energy policy.
At a glance
- Traded as
- Yellow dent corn, feed grade
- Quoted in
- US cents per bushel in Chicago, euros per tonne in Paris
- World production
- Roughly 1,220 million tonnes in 2024/25
- Largest producer
- The United States, close to a third of world output
What is actually being traded
The corn that trades on an exchange is yellow dent corn - feed grade, not the sweetcorn people eat. It is a bulk industrial commodity graded by moisture, damage and foreign material, and delivered against warehouse receipts along the Illinois river system.
Chicago quotes cents per bushel, and a bushel of corn is about 25.4 kilograms. Europe and Brazil quote per tonne. As with wheat, most confused comparisons are unit errors rather than disagreements.
Corn is also the reference point for the whole feed complex. Soybean meal supplies protein, corn supplies energy, and wheat can substitute for either at the right price - so a corn price is really a price for feed energy.
Exchange corn is livestock feed and ethanol feedstock. Human food is a small share of the crop.
What it is used for
Roughly six in ten tonnes of world corn go to animals. The rest splits between industrial processing - above all ethanol in the United States - starch and sweeteners, and direct food use, which matters most in Africa and Central America where maize is a staple.
The ethanol share is what makes American corn demand a policy variable. A blending mandate, a waiver for small refineries, or a change in gasoline consumption changes how much corn gets crushed for fuel, and that decision is made in Washington rather than in a grain market.
- Animal feed
- 60%
- Ethanol and industrial processing
- 21%
- Food, starch and sweeteners
- 14%
- Seed and waste
- 5%
Source: USDA and FAO balance sheets
Where it comes from
The American Midwest is the single most important agricultural region on earth for this crop, and Brazil has become the second pillar - largely through its second crop, the safrinha, planted after soybeans are harvested and now accounting for most Brazilian corn.
That second crop matters for timing. It puts a large southern hemisphere harvest into the market at a different point in the year than the US harvest, which has smoothed what used to be a sharply seasonal price pattern.
| Name | Share |
|---|---|
| United States | 31% |
| China | 24% |
| Brazil | 11% |
| European Union | 5% |
| Argentina | 4% |
| Rest of world | 25% |
Source: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
Behind the subscription
The rest of this entry is the part that changes a decision: what moves the price, which contract sets it, who ships it and where that can be cut off.
What moves the price
The three weeks in July that decide the American crop, how ethanol margins transmit the oil price into corn, and the five other forces that matter.
Where it is traded
The contracts that price corn, their delivery mechanics, and why basis - the gap between futures and the local cash price - is where the real trading happens.
Who ships it, and where it can be cut off
The export map, the river that most American corn floats down, and the canal transit that decides freight to Asia.
How this shows up in prediction markets
How the USDA calendar structures a corn year, and why the same threshold means different things in March and in August.
Included with a subscription
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Frequently asked questions
- Do people eat most of the world's corn?
- No. Roughly six tonnes in ten go to animal feed and a large share of the rest to ethanol and industrial processing. Direct human consumption is a minority use globally, though it is a staple in parts of Africa and Central America.
- Why does the oil price affect corn?
- Through ethanol. A large share of the US crop is processed into fuel, and how much depends on ethanol margins, which move with gasoline prices and with blending policy. It is an indirect link but a material one.
- Which weeks matter most for the corn crop?
- Pollination in the US Midwest, roughly two to three weeks in July. Heat or drought in that window costs yield that later rain cannot recover, which is why weather forecasts then move the market more than most reports.
- What is basis in grain trading?
- The difference between the futures price and the local cash price at a specific elevator or port. Futures reflect the world balance; basis reflects whether there is transport and a buyer where the grain physically sits.
Primary sources
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