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Corn and soybeans also notch relatively strong tallies last week.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

July 16, 2020

2 Min Read

The 2020/21 wheat marketing year is only a few weeks old, but last week’s volume was the best so far, according to USDA’s latest batch of export sales data, covering the week through July 9. Old crop corn sales were also up noticeably from a week ago. Old crop soybean sales were lackluster, but a healthy batch of new crop sales were more encouraging.

Wheat saw net sales of 28.1 million bushels last week, moving ahead of all trade estimates, which ranged between 9.2 million and 23.9 million bushels. China accounted for nearly half of the total, with 11.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are now fractionally higher than last year’s pace, with 106.4 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments firmed 56% above last week’s total and 23% above the prior four-week average, with 23.6 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 4.2 million bushels. Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and the Philippines rounded out the top five.

Corn exports found 38.6 million bushels in old crop sales (up noticeably from the prior four-week average) plus another 25.8 million bushels in new crop sales for a total tally of 64.4 million bushels. Total sales were on the low end of trade estimates, which ranged between 59.1 million and 114.2 million bushels. China accounted for the lion’s share of that volume, with 53.9 million bushels. Meantime, cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are increasingly unlikely to match last year’s pace, with 1.417 billion bushels.

Related:Weekly Export Sales – Corn tally comes in strong

Corn export shipments slipped 14% below the prior four-week average but still posted a solid 39.9 million bushels. Mexico topped all destinations, with 10.8 million bushels. Japan, China, Peru and Saudi Arabia filled out the top five.

Sorghum export sales jumped 50% above its prior four-week average, reaching 2.9 million bushels in old crop sales and another 2.1 million bushels in new crop sales. The primary buyers last week were China and unknown destinations. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still more than double last year’s pace, with 135.2 million bushels.

Old crop soybean sales tumbled 46% below the prior four-week average, with 11.5 million bushels, shored up by another 28.2 million bushels in new crop sales for a total of 39.7 million bushels. Analysts were generally expecting a more robust tally, with individual guesses ranging between 25.7 million and 68.0 million bushels. China was the top buyer, with 14.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still slightly behind last year’s pace, with 1.409 billion bushels.

Related:Weekly Export Sales – Soybeans spill to new marketing-year low

Soybean export shipments jumped 49% above the prior four-week average, with 21.1 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 8.4 million bushels. Indonesia, Mexico, Tunisia and Pakistan rounded out the top five.

Click here to see more highlights from the latest USDA export report, covering the period between July 3 and July 9.

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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