USDA’s latest weekly export sales report, out Thursday morning and covering the week through August 13, mainly met trade expectations. That included a big batch of new crop soybean sales, plus a solid round of corn and wheat sales. Old crop sales for both corn and soybeans dwindled as the 2019/20 marketing year draws to a close.

Old crop soybean sales were disappointing, moving to a marketing year low of 467,000. But new crop sales jumped to 94.5 million bushels, bringing the total tally to just under 95 million bushels. That was still on the low end of trade estimates, which ranged between 84.5 million and 143.3 million bushels. China accounted for more than half of that total, with 60.8 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still behind last year’s pace, with 1.542 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments firmed 22% above the prior four-week average to 33.0 million bushels. China was again the top destination, with 15.1 million bushels. The Netherlands, Mexico, Indonesia and Japan rounded out the top five.

Old crop corn sales tumbled 63% below the prior four-week average to 2.4 million bushels. New crop sales fared much better, with 28.5 million bushels, bringing the total tally to 30.9 million bushels last week. That tally landed in the middle of trade estimates, which ranged between 19.7 million and 53.1 million bushels. Cumulative sales this marketing year are now at 1.623 billion bushels, making it virtually impossible to catch up to last year’s pace of 1.887 billion bushels.

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Corn export shipments moved 19% ahead of the prior four-week average to 47.1 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 15.1 million bushels. Mexico, Japan, Colombia and Guatemala filled out the top five.

Sorghum export sales found another 5.0 million bushels last week, bringing 2019/20 totals to 170.9 million bushels. That’s far ahead of the prior year’s pace of 64.6 million bushels. China and unknown destinations accounted for 100% of last week’s sales.

Wheat export sales reached 19.2 million bushels last week, dropping 42% below last week’s tally but staying 8% ahead of the prior four-week average and making the high end of trade estimates, which ranged between 11.0 million and 22.0 million bushels. The Philippines led all destinations, with 6.7 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year have slipped slightly below last year’s pace, with 198.5 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments fell 23% below the prior four-week average to 15.0 million bushels. Japan took nearly a third of the total, with 4.9 million bushels. Mexico, Sri Lanka, Yemen and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Related:Weekly Export Sales – Soybeans bounce above expectations

Click here to see more highlights from the latest USDA export report, covering August 7 through August 13.