USDA’s latest grain export inspection report, released Monday morning and covering the week through August 27, were nothing but disappointing, with corn, soybeans and wheat all landing on the lower end of trade estimates and spilling lower week-over-week. Traders mostly shrugged off the latest data, however, with most grain prices moving higher in morning trading.

Corn export inspections fell to 15.8 million bushels, which was less than half of the prior week’s tally and below all trade estimates, which ranged between 31.5 million and 43.3 million bushels. With less than a week to go in the 2019/20 marketing year, cumulative totals of 1.640 million bushels are more than 200 million bushels behind last year’s pace.

 Mexico was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 7.8 million bushels. China, Japan, Jamaica and Taiwan rounded out the top five.

Sorghum remains a small-but-mighty highlight for 2019/20 grain export inspections, doubling the prior week’s pace with another 6.4 million bushels last week, all of which was headed for China and Zimbabwe. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year have far outpaced last year’s tally, with 195.2 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections were also lackluster last week, falling 34% week-over-week to 29.6 million bushels. That was at least good enough to land in the middle of trade estimates, which ranged between 23.9 million and 36.7 million bushels. As the 2019/20 marketing year winds down, cumulative totals remain moderately behind last year’s pace, with 1.585 billion bushels.

China accounted for more than half of all U.S. soybean export inspections last week, with 17.1 million bushels. The Netherlands, Spain, Mexico and Egypt filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections trended moderately lower last week, dropping to 19.0 million bushels. That was on the lower end of trade estimates, which ranged between 14.7 million and 15.7 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still a bit ahead of last year’s pace, with 247.8 million bushels.

Nigeria led all destinations for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 3.0 million bushels. An Asian quartet of the Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan rounded out the top five.

Click here to review the latest round of grain export inspection data from USDA.