Corn retreats from marketing-year high, while soybeans firm slightly.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

April 2, 2020

2 Min Read

USDA’s latest weekly export sales report once again held a mixed bag of results. Soybean sales were arguably the most bullish data set after climbing 75% above the prior four-week average. Corn sales remained relatively strong but moved moderately below last week’s tally, which was a marketing-year high. And wheat sales plummeted to a marketing-year low after spilling 86% below the prior four-week average.

Soybean sales turned in another bullish performance for the week ending March 26, firming 6% week-over-week to reach 35.2 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 4.2 million bushels in new crop sales. That tally also landed on the high end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 13.8 million and 36.7 million bushels. Mexico snapped up the most sales, buying 16 million bushels.

Soybean export shipments were down 23% from a week ago and 20% below the prior four-week average, meantime. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 4.6 million bushels, followed by Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan and Malaysia.

Corn export sales were down significantly from a week ago, but that was largely to be expected after last week’s tally reached a marketing year high. Sales slid 41% lower last week to 42.3 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 800,000 bushels in new crop sales. Analysts were expecting a total that ranged between 27.6 million and 51.2 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 12.4 million bushels.

Corn export shipments climbed to a marketing-year high after netting 49.5 million bushels last week, which topped the prior four-week average by 42%. Japan led the way with 18.8 million bushels. Mexico, Colombia, South Korea and Costa Rica rounded out the top five.

Wheat export sales underperformed last week. While analysts estimated a wide range that stretched between 9.2 million and 34.9 million bushels, actuals fell all the way to 2.7 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 6.8 million bushels in new crop sales – a marketing-year low. Mexico was the No. 1 buyer, with 3.1 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments also faded, moving 34% lower week-over-week and 42% below the prior four-week tally. Indonesia and Mexico were the top two destinations, with 2.7 million bushels each. Japan, Taiwan and Colombia filled out the top five.

Click here for last week’s entire export data set from USDA.

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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