Organic corn prices will continue to experience headwinds especially if crack corn continues to make its way to US shores. October historically has been a strong season month for the combination of organic cracked corn and organic whole corn imports that make their way into the United States. In looking at a chart of the seasonal imports of organic cracked corn and organic whole corn into the US over the past 4-years, October has been one of the strongest months. Unfortunately, the timing could not be worse as it comes just ahead of the 2020/2021 harvest.

Michalob Adds Organic Hard Selter

Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer will be released in January 2021, marketing itself as the first national USDA-certified organic hard seltzer. While the demand for hard seltzer continues to grow with an upward trajectory it is unclear whether the “organic label” will drive market share. If it does, this will become another outlet for organic barley which is used in creating hard seltzer.

Milk Utilization Slides

When looking in the rearview mirror, it appears that organic whole milk use, which is a subsection of dairy, declined in July, according to an AMS report. The USDA reports that during July 2020, organic whole milk utilization totaled 13.3 million pounds, down from 13.6 million pounds the previous year. This is a decline of 2% year over year according to the AMS figures. During this period organic dairy advertisements increased 7% year over year while organic milk advertisements increased by 58% year over year. The AMS gets this data by counting the advertisement placed in periodicals or online each period.