* Data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed that the country’s soybean imports in October dropped by 10.7% from a year earlier.

China imported 6.18m tonnes of soybean for the month, down from October 2018’s 6.92m tonnes.

October imports were also 24.6% lower than September’s 8.2m tonnes.

The drop in imports is blamed on China’s continued struggles with African swine fever, which has significantly reduced the country’s pig herd and its demand for animal feed.

* FranceAgriMer said on Friday that the country’s maize harvest was 79% complete by November 4.

This is up from 65% a week earlier, but still well below the 98% level recorded for the same period last year.

Soft wheat sowing for harvest in 2020 was 67% complete, down from last year’s 85% level.

Winter barley sowing was at 81%, down from 90% a year ago.

* Egypt’s supply ministry said on Friday that the country has enough sugar, rice and vegetable oil reserves to cover around three months of consumption.

* Rabobank reported that China’s pork imports will reach a record 4.6m tonnes next year.

According to the Dutch bank, imports are set to reach between 3.1m and 3.3m tonnes this year, already higher than last year’s 2.1m tonnes.

It added that China’s low domestic pork supply will only pick up again from 2021.

* The US Department of Agriculture said on Thursday that China has bought 136,000 tonnes of US soybeans.

This comes after the two countries announced plans to drop tariffs imposed during their trade war in phases.

The department said that Chinese purchases of US soybeans totaled 956,300 tonnes in the week ending October 31.

Data also showed that exporters sold a total of 7.414m tonnes of soybeans to China since the start of the current marketing year on September 1.

* South Korea’s Nonghyup Feed Inc. bought around 69,000 tonnes of corn in a private deal.

According to Reuters sources, the company purchased the corn without issuing an international tender and paid around $205.63 per tonne.

The seller is believed to be Cargill.