Wednesday, March 28, 2012

RTRS-U.N. FAO SENIOR ECONOMIST ABBASSIAN SEES WORLD SOY, CORN PRICES "VERY FIRM" OVER NEAR TERM

BUENOS AIRES, March 26 (Reuters) - World grain prices will likely remain "very firm" over the near term as animal feed demand outpaces expectations and dry weather stunts supply, the senior economist of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday.

"In the near term - this month and next - we are going to still see very firm prices. What happens after that depends on crop development and the weather," the FAO's senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters in a telephone interview.