Corn, soybeans and wheat fail to impress with lackluster tallies.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

April 22, 2021

2 Min Read
Ron-Chapple-Stock/Thinkstock

Recent grain export numbers have been fairly disappointing, and USDA’s latest data, out Thursday morning and covering the week through April 15, once again didn’t have much bullish information to digest. Wheat sales were down noticeably from a week ago but still managed to climb 55% above the prior four-week average. Old crop corn sales tumbled 75% below the prior four-week average, meantime, with old crop soybeans sliding 29% lower week-over-week.

Old crop corn sales firmed 18% higher week-over-week but were still well below the prior four-week average, with 15.3 million bushels. New crop sales added another 14.7 million bushels, for a total tally of 30.0 million bushels. That was near the middle of trade guesses, which ranged between 13.8 million and 43.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still close to doubling last year’s pace, with 1.551 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments were more robust, but still shifted 18% below the prior four-week average to 63.2 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 22.1 million bushels. Mexico, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan rounded out the top five.

Sorghum exports found another 4.8 million bushels in old and new crop sales last week, all bound for China. Cumulative sales for the 2020/21 marketing year are roughly tripling last year’s pace, with 201.1 million bushels.

Old crop soybean sales were down another 29% week-over-week, with just 2.4 million bushels. New crop sales found another 11.6 million bushels, for a total of 14.0 million bushels. That was near the middle of analyst estimates, which ranged between 5.5 million and 27.6 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are maintaining a large lead over last year’s pace, with 2.048 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments fell 47% below the prior four-week average to a marketing year low of 8.3 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 2.7 million bushels. Japan, Indonesia, China and Taiwan filled out the top five.

Wheat exports saw 8.8 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 13.7 million bushels in new crop sales for a total of 22.5 million bushels. That was toward the higher end of trade guesses, which ranged between 7.3 million and 25.7 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year have slipped slightly below last year’s pace, with 784.4 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments improved 11% versus the prior four-week average, reaching 20.6 million bushels. The Philippines led all destinations, with 4.8 million bushels. Thailand, China, South Korea and Mexico rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights and insights from the latest USDA export report, which covers April 9 through April 15.

About the Author(s)

Ben Potter

Senior editor, Farm Futures

Senior Editor Ben Potter brings two decades of professional agricultural communications and journalism experience to Farm Futures. He began working in the industry in the highly specific world of southern row crop production. Since that time, he has expanded his knowledge to cover a broad range of topics relevant to agriculture, including agronomy, machinery, technology, business, marketing, politics and weather. He has won several writing awards from the American Agricultural Editors Association, most recently on two features about drones and farmers who operate distilleries as a side business. Ben is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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