Soybean export sales slid in way below numbers from a week ago, also falling below trade estimates. Still, a relatively slow harvest that may be slowing down even further due to rains across the Midwest this week gave soybean prices a modest lift. Following the release of Thursday morning’s latest USDA Weekly Export Sales report, soybean prices found a modest boost of 4 cents. Meantime, corn prices were down less than 1 cent, while winter wheat prices slipped around 3 cents and spring wheat prices gained around 3 cents.

Following a week of sluggish volume, corn export sales picked back up for the week ending Sept. 28, with 32.1 million bushels in old crop sales. That handily beat totals of 12.6 million bushels from a week prior, as well as trade estimates of 23.6 million bushels.

Export shipments for corn tallied 38.0 million bushels last week. Top destinations included Mexico (15.8 million bushels), Japan (6.1 million bushels), Colombia (5.4 million bushels), South Korea (2.8 million bushels) and Peru (2.7 million bushels).

Soybeans, coming off a large volume of 114.0 million bushels in export sales for the week ending Sept. 21, couldn’t sustain that pace. Totals for the week ending Sept. 28 were down to 37.3 million bushels, slightly below the trade estimates of 42.3 million bushels.

Export shipments in soybeans for the week totaled 36.2 million bushels. As is often the case, more than half of last week’s soybean export shipments went to China (20.1 million bushels), and other top destinations included Mexico (3.6 million bushels), Portugal (2.6 million bushels) Vietnam (2.6 million bushels) and the Netherlands (2.4 million bushels).

For a second week in a row, wheat export sales finished higher than the week prior and ahead of trade estimates. For the week ending Sept. 28, export sales totaled 18.1 million bushels. That’s 13% higher than a week ago and 37% higher than the four-week average.

Export shipments of 26.3 million bushels were also significantly higher than a week ago (68%) as well as the four-week average (88%). Top destinations for the week included the Philippines and China (4.2 million bushels each), followed by Mexico (3.4 million bushels), Taiwan (3.2 million bushels) and Chile (2.5 million bushels).

Soymeal net sales were down from the week prior but still ahead of the four-week average by 20%. Soyoil sales were down 54% from a week ago and 39% lower than the four-week average.

Highlights from other crops include: