USDA’s latest set of grain export sales data, out Thursday morning and covering the week through June 9, showed mixed but mostly disappointing results. Soybean sales continue to show relative strength, especially considering that domestic supplies are getting increasingly tighter. Old crop corn sales fell to a marketing-year low, meantime, and wheat sales moved to the lower end of trade expectations.

Old crop corn sales reached 5.5 million bushels last week. New crop sales chipped in another 5.5 million bushels, bringing the total to 11.0 million bushels. Analysts were generally expecting to see stronger totals, offering a range of guesses between 5.9 million and 35.4 million bushels prior to the report’s release. Cumulative sales for the 2021/22 marketing year are more than 200 million bushels below last year’s pace, with 1.932 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments slid 10% below the prior four-week average, with 54.6 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 18.1 million bushels. China, Japan, South Korea and Canada rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export sales tumbled noticeably below the prior four-week average, with just 83,000 bushels. Increases to China were largely offset by reductions to unknown destinations. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are slightly trailing last year’s pace, with 237.1 million bushels.

Soybean exports found 11.7 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 15.0 million bushels in new crop sales for a total of 26.7 million bushels. That was toward the higher end of trade guesses, which ranged between 7.3 million and 40.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still moderately below last year’s pace, with 1.866 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments climbed 23% above the prior four-week average to 26.0 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 6.8 million bushels. Egypt, Japan, China and the Netherlands filled out the top five.

Wheat sales reached 8.7 million bushels last week, falling to the very low end of analyst estimates, which came in between 7.3 million and 22.0 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the young 2022/23 marketing year are off to a slightly stronger start versus year-ago totals, with 21.4 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments 13.6 million bushels last week. Mexico topped all destinations last week, taking just under 3.0 million bushels. Japan, Ecuador, Nigeria and Chile rounded out the top five.

Click here for more results from USDA’s latest report, covering June 3 through June 9.