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Corn and wheat fall to marketing-year lows, with soybeans also down significantly

Ben Potter, Senior editor

May 26, 2022

2 Min Read
Top view from drone of a large ship loading grain for export. Water transport
Getty/iStockphoto/sirene68

The latest set of grain export sales data from USDA, out Thursday morning and covering the week through May 19, showed hugely disappointing results, especially when it came to old crop sales. Corn and wheat volume each spilled to new marketing-year lows, while old crop soybean sales fell 48% below the prior four-week average. Futures faded into the red following today’s report.

Old crop corn sales reached 6.0 million bushels – a marketing-year low – with new crop sales only adding another 2.3 million bushels, bringing the total tally to 8.3 million bushels. That was definitively below trade guesses, which ranged between 13.8 million and 51.2 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the 2021/22 marketing year are still running moderately behind last year’s pace, with 1.761 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments were much more robust, trending 15% higher than the prior four-week average to 71.7 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 31.2 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, Canada and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Sorghum exports fell 94% week-over-week after facing small reductions after a Chinese cancellation. Cumulative sales for the 2021/22 marketing year are slightly below last year’s pace, with 217.9 million bushels.

Old crop soybean sales fell 63% lower week-over-week to 10.2 million bushels. New crop sales contributed another 16.3 million bushels, for a total of 26.5 million bushels. That was toward the lower end of analyst estimates, which came in between 11.0 million and 51.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still trending almost 300 million bushels below last year’s pace, with 1.810 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments eroded 44% lower from a week ago, falling to 19.8 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 6.2 million bushels. Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia and the Netherlands filled out the top five.

Old crop wheat sales fell to a marketing-year low after facing small net reductions after cancellations from Mexico and unknown destinations more than offset sales to Italy, Nigeria and the Philippines. New crop sales reached 9.0 million bushels, for a net total of 9.0 million bushels. That kept results near the middle of trade guesses, which ranged between 1.8 million and 18.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still moderately below last year’s pace, with 667.2 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments slipped 1% below the prior four-week average, with just under 11.0 million bushels. Japan was the top destination, with 4.0 million bushels. Mexico, the Philippines, Nigeria and Canada rounded out the top five.

Click here for more results from USDA’s latest report, covering May 13 through May 19.

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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