Farm Futures logo

Soybean sales also post relatively strong results last week; wheat lackluster.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

July 9, 2020

2 Min Read
CargoShip
AG SHIPPERS SPEAK OUT: During House subcommittee hearing June 15, ag industry members discuss lasting negative impact as ocean carriers to decline to carry U.S. agriculture commodity exports.3dmentat/ThinkstockPhotos

USDA’s latest batch of grain export sales data, covering the week through July 2, held a decisive mix of numbers for traders to chew on this morning. Corn saw strong totals for both old crop and new crop sales last week. Soybeans also saw strong old crop sales, with a relatively disappointing haul of new crop sales. Wheat sales were relatively muted, falling moderately below last year’s pace a month into the 2020/21 marketing year.

Corn saw 23.6 million bushels in old crop sales, plus another 16.1 million bushels in new crop sales, for a total of 39.7 million bushels. Old crop sales climbed 30% above the prior four-week average, and total sales were on the high end of trade estimates, which ranged between 17.7 million and 43.3 million bushels.

China jumped to the No. 1 position among all buyers of U.S. corn last week, with 16.0 million bushels. Other more common participants, including Mexico, Colombia, Honduras and Nicaragua filled out the top five. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still more than 350 million bushels behind last year’s pace, at 1.377 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments were for 42.7 million bushels, sliding 11% below the prior four-week average. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 14.1 million bushels.

Japan, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and China rounded out the top five.

Old crop soybean sales jumped 60% above the prior four-week average, with 35.0 million bushels. New crop sales added another 14.0 million bushels, for a total of 49.0 million bushels. Analysts had predicted a tally landing somewhere between 25.7 million and 66.1 million bushels. China accounted for nearly half of the total, with 24.0 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are slightly behind last year’s pace, with 1.388 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments gained some momentum, moving 20% higher week-over-week and 36% above the prior four-week average, with 17.2 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 5.3 million bushels. Indonesia, China, Bangladesh and Taiwan filled out the top five.

Wheat sales gathered 12.0 million bushels in sales for the 2020/21 marketing year but also noted a reduction of 2.8 million bushels for 2021/22. Analysts generally thought old crop sales would be more robust, with trade guesses ranging between 7.3 million and 20.2 million bushels. Mexico was the top buyer last week, with net sales of 4.8 million bushels. Marketing-year totals have started off relatively slow, now at 82.9 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments fared somewhat better, with 15.1 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 4.1 million bushels. Taiwan, Malaysia, Italy and Guatemala rounded out the top five.

Click here to see more highlights from the latest USDA export report, covering the period between June 26 and July 2.

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.

Subscribe to receive top agriculture news
Be informed daily with these free e-newsletters

You May Also Like