USDA had plenty of bullish planting intentions data to share yesterday, but the agency’s latest export sales report, out Thursday morning and covering the week through March 25, wasn’t much of a positive follow-up. Old crop corn sales fell 46% below the prior four-week average, with wheat also down 22% compared to the past month. Old crop soybean sales tracked slightly higher week-over-week but still slumped 54% below the prior four-week average.

Corn exports saw 31.4 million bushels in old crop sales, plus another 2.4 million bushels of new crop sales for a total tally of 33.8 million bushels. That was on the lower end of trade estimates, which ranged between 23.6 million and 59.1 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year still hold a commanding lead over last year’s pace, reaching 1.335 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments were much stronger, inching 2% above the prior four-week average to 77.9 million bushels. Japan topped all destinations, with 17.1 million bushels. Mexico, China, Colombia and Taiwan rounded out the top five.

Sorghum exports notched another 7.2 million bushels in old and new crop sales last week, all bound for China. The grain continues to be a nice success story this marketing year, hauling in total sales of 150.6 million bushels that have nearly tripled last year’s pace so far.

Soybean exports found 3.9 million bushels in old crop sales plus 4.8 million bushels in new crop sales for a total tally of 8.7 million bushels. Analysts offered a wide array of trade guesses for between 3.7 million and 23.9 million bushels, but the actual total still landed on the low end of that range. Overall totals for the 2020/21 marketing year remain impressive, climbing to 2.014 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments slumped to a marketing-year low of 16.9 million bushels, trailing the prior four-week average by 35%. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 3.3 million bushels. Mexico, China, Egypt and Belgium filled out the top five.

Wheat exports saw 9.2 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 3.0 million bushels in new crop sales for a total of 12.2 million bushels, spilling to the lower end of trade estimates that ranged between 7.3 million and 23.9 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the 2020/21 marketing year remain slightly behind last year’s pace, with 723.3 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments were also lackluster, tumbling 51% below the prior four-week average to 9.9 million bushels. Nigeria was the No. 1 destination, with 2.9 million bushels. The Philippines, Japan, the Dominican Republic and Vietnam rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights and insights from the latest export report from USDA, which covers March 19 through March 25.