Corn and soybeans see significant week-over-week reductions

Ben Potter, Senior editor

August 5, 2021

2 Min Read
Two barges on the river.
Getty/ghornephoto

The latest batch of export data from USDA, out Thursday morning and covering the week through July 29, had another mixed round of numbers for traders to digest this time around. Old crop corn and soybean sales faced moderate cuts versus the prior four-week average. New crop corn sales fared somewhat better, pushing the total volume above the range of analyst estimates. Wheat sales were relatively disappointing, meantime, coming in at the very low end of trade guesses.

Corn exports saw 2.7 million bushels in old crop sales, plus another 32.7 million bushels in new crop sales, for a total tally of 35.4 million bushels. That was enough to exceed the entire range of trade estimates, which were between 2.0 million and 31.5 million bushels. Even more encouragingly, cumulative sales for the 2020/21 marketing year are almost a billion bushels ahead of last year’s pace, moving to 2.501 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments climbed 20% above the prior four-week average, to 55.5 million bushels. China accounted for the bulk of that total, with 35.8 million bushels. Mexico, Honduras, Japan and Costa Rica rounded out the top five.

Sorghum sales came in at a slim 106,000 bushels last week, with reductions to China partially offsetting sales to Mexico. Cumulative sales for the 2020/21 marketing year are still far ahead of last year’s pace, moving to 259.4 million bushels.

Soybean exports gathered just 419,000 bushels in old crop sales but added another 15.6 million bushels in new crop sales for a total of 16.0 million bushels last week. That was on the higher end of trade estimates, which ranged between 3.7 million and 23.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year still hold a substantial lead over last year’s pace, with 2.180 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments dipped 4% below the prior four-week pace, with 7.9 million bushels. Mexico topped all destinations, with 2.4 million bushels. Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and China filled out the top five.

Wheat exports fell 28% below the prior four-week average, to 11.3 million bushels. That was on the lower end of trade estimates, which ranged between 9.2 million and 25.7 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the first two months of the 2021/22 marketing year are off to a sluggish start, with 114.5 million bushels (versus year-over-year volume of 162.7 million bushels).

Wheat export shipments moved 12% higher week-over-week but inched 1% below the prior four-week average, to 14.2 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 4.7 million bushels. The Philippines, South Korea, Japan and Chile rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights and insights from the latest USDA report, covering July 23 through July 29.

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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