M. Shahbandeh
Research expert covering agriculture & FMCG
Corn in the U.S. - statistics & facts
In 2023/2024, the United States was by far the biggest corn producer worldwide, with a production volume amounting to almost 350 million metric tons. This corresponded to just about one third of the global corn production. Corn is the world's most important grain, based on production volume. In 2022/2023, worldwide corn production came to around 1.15 billion metric tons.
U.S. is one of the leading global corn supplier
In 2023, the United States exported over 13 billion U.S. dollars worth of corn worldwide, making it one of the biggest exporter of corn with over 2.1 billion bushels exported in 2023. Among the leading buyers of U.S. corn were Mexico, China, and Japan in 2023. Corn makes up about a 27.5 percent share of all U.S. crop area harvested, meaning that corn has the largest crop area. That year, over 86 million acres of corn were harvested for grain in the U.S. The three states of Iowa, Illinois, and Nebrask were accounted for over 30 percent of the U.S. corn cultivation.Price and utilization
Over the last eight decades, U.S. prices per one metric ton of corn showed high volatilities but were rapidly increasing in 2021 and 2022. A new peak price was reached in summer 2012, attributable especially to the tremendous drought in most of the major agricultural U.S. states. As of 2022, corn prices almost reached the 2012 values. The prices are projecte to go down by about two U.S. dollars per bushel in 2023/2023. Corn is increasingly utilized in the production of industrial ethanol. In 2022/2023, over a quarter of all corn was used for this purpose in the United States. U.S. is the leading consumer of corn worldwide consuming more than all the EU counteies combined.
