South Korea's largest animal feed manufacturer Nonghyup Feed Inc. Wednesday bought four cargoes of corn totalling 238,000 metric tons, on a cost and freight basis, for arrival in April and May, trading executives said.

East Asian buyers are snapping up cargoes of corn due to the latest decline in prices and the discount of up to $20/ton on a delivered basis over feed wheat.

Except for one 40,000-ton cargo which is of U.S. or South African origin, the rest will be shipped from South America.

Details of the purchases follow:-

Arrival       Volume          Seller           Price (C&F) 
April 13      69,000          Cargill          $322.85 
April 13      60,000          Glencore         $322.85 
May    7      69,000          Cargill          $329.81 
May   15      40,000          Noble            $329.76

In mid-November, South Korean buyers had bought feed corn for March arrival around $337/ton and for May arrival around $323.50/ton. The difference of almost $14/ton is due to an expected bumper harvest of South American corn by April.

Write to Sameer C. Mohindru at sameer.mohindru@dowjones.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2012 06:17 ET (11:17 GMT)