CORN fell the most last week on speculation that higher supplies in China, the world's largest consumer of the grain, will cut demand for imports.

China will produce 145 million metric tons of corn this season, up from 143 million estimated in October, the US Department of Agriculture said in a report on Friday. That would push the country's reserves to 28.1 million tons before the next harvest, up from 25.7 million estimated a month ago. Still, the stocks would 14 percent off from the previous year, Bloomberg News said.

"The trade is unlikely to think that the Chinese are going to import corn anytime soon," said Mike Zuzolo, president of Risk Management Commodities Inc in Lafayette, Indiana. Speculation that China would become a net importer of corn for the first time in 12 years helped push corn prices up 12 percent in the past two months, he said.

Corn futures for December delivery fell 2.75 cents, or 0.7 percent, to US$3.8675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the biggest one-day drop since November 1. Corn still rose 2.6 percent last week, the fifth straight weekly gain, and reached a four-month high of US$3.93 two days ago.

Still, the price has fallen 14 percent since reaching a 10-year high of US$4.5025 in February, after US farmers boosted acreage 15 percent to the highest since 1944.