← Critical Product/Equipment/Process: Agri, Food & Bio-based (all topics)
Maize/corn feedstock
What it is
Maize is the principal raw material for the wet-milling starch industry, which separates the kernel into starch, gluten, germ and fibre. It typically dominates the cost structure, so realisation depends on the maize-to-starch spread
India's maize is largely rain-fed with yields well below global averages, and the crop now serves three competing demands - food, poultry and cattle feed, and ethanol
Impact on industries
- Fuel-versus-feed competition has permanently repriced the input, since ethanol demand is policy-driven and price-insensitive in a way food processing cannot match
- Procurement is seasonal against year-round production, so working capital is tied up in inventory carried at a price fixed once a year
- Yield headroom is genuine - Indian maize productivity trails global benchmarks substantially, so hybrid seed and irrigation gains could expand supply without new acreage
- Wet milling monetises the whole kernel: gluten and germ sold into feed and oil markets partly hedge the starch spread