Wheat weekly export sales have been dragging their feet for most of the 2017/18 marketing year, but sales for the week ending December 7 came in much better than expected. Corn and soybean export sales, meantime, came in under trade expectations.

Wheat notched 21.6 million bushels of old crop sales and another 300,000 bushels of new crop sales for a total of 22 million bushels. That was well above trade estimates of 12.9 million bushels and the prior week’s total of 11.8 million bushels. The weekly rate needed to meet USDA’s forecast is now 12.8 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments totaled 11.1 million bushels, which was 24% lower than the week prior and 2% off the four-week average. Top destinations included the Philippines (2.6 million bushels), Mexico (1.8 million bushels), Nigeria (1.5 million bushels), South Korea (1.5 million bushels) and Yemen (1.1 million bushels). 

Corn export sales totaled 34.1 million bushels, which was down from the prior week’s total of 34.1 and slightly below trade estimates of 37.4 million bushels. The weekly rate needed to meet USDA’s forecast is now 26 million bushels. 

Corn export shipments hit 27.2 million bushels, which was 17% higher than the prior week as well as the four-week average. Top destinations included Mexico (10.8 million bushels), Japan (8.6 million bushels), Colombia (3.3 million bushels), Costa Rica (1.2 million bushels) and Guatemala (1.1 million bushels).

Soybean export sales also dipped below trade estimates (65.2 million bushels), with 53.4 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 4.2 million in new crop sales for a total of 57.5 million bushels. That was also down from the week prior, which notched 74.1 million bushels in total sales, but remains well ahead of the weekly rate needed to reach USDA’s forecast, which now stands at 22 million bushels.

Soybean export shipments reached 46.3 million bushels, with the majority of that volume destined for China (28.2 million bushels). Other top destinations included Taiwan (3.7 million bushels), the Netherlands (2.6 million bushels), Egypt (2.4 million bushels) and Bangladesh (1.9 million bushels).

Sorghum export sales were down 22% from the week prior, which was a marketing year high, but was still 7% ahead of the four-week average. Total volume was 12.5 million bushels, split between China and unknown destinations.

Cotton export sales reached 259,700 bales, which was 39% higher than the previous week but 22% off the four-week average.