* Data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board showed that the country’s palm oil stocks rose 9.3% from August to reach 2.4m tonnes in September.

The increase is the first in seven months for the world’s second largest palm oil producer.

Malaysia’s palm oil exports for September dropped 18.8% from August’s three-year high of 1.4m tonnes.

Output increased 1.2% from August to 1.8m tonnes.

* China’s Ministry of Agriculture said that the country’s 2018-19 corn usage for animal feed reached 171m tonnes, down 3m tonnes from its August estimate.

African swine fever has massively reduced the country’s pig herd, resulting in the lower demand for feed.

* German sugar refiner Suedzucker said on Thursday that its operating profit in the second quarter reached E28m, down 54.8% from a year earlier.

The company said its sugar division made an operating loss of E55m for the quarter, up from last year’s operating loss of E6m.

The company blamed low sugar prices and the impact of a drier-than-normal summer on sugar beet yields for the decline in earnings.

* Customs data showed that Vietnam’s coffee exports for September reached 1.54m 60-kilogramme bags (92,347 tonnes).

This is down 19.1% from the exports in August.

Vietnam Customs said that the country’s exports for the first nine months dropped 12.5% compared to last year to 1.27m tonnes.

* Russia’s Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said the government expects the country’s grain crop to reach 120m tonnes for the year.

This is up from the 118m tonnes Mr Patrushev forecast earlier this month.

The country’s grain exports for the 2019-20 season are expected to reach around 45m tonnes.

Wheat exports are expected to reach 36m tonnes.