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Export inspections move higher for soybeans, as corn and wheat ease

Ben Potter, Senior editor

November 25, 2019

2 Min Read

Soybean export inspections moved 26% higher week-over week, USDA reports, while corn and wheat export inspections slide lower. USDA’s latest weekly export inspection report, which covers the week ending November 21, was released Monday morning.

Soybean export inspections reached 71.4 million bushels last week – an impressive tally anchored by China’s total of 29.9 million bushels. However, that percentage is still below pre-trade-war levels, when China would take around 60% of total U.S. soybean exports. Analysts anticipated totally soybean export inspections would reach 55.1 million bushels.

Other top destinations for U.S. soybean export inspections last week included Egypt (2.9 million), Indonesia (2.7 million) and Pakistan (2.5 million). More than a dozen countries showed up in the latest USDA report.

Corn export inspections were relatively muted after reaching 23.8 million bushels last week. That was down 7% from the prior week and 49% lower than the same week a year ago. Analysts were also expecting a larger tally, with an average trade guess of 25.6 million bushels.

Mexico was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week – as it has often been in recent months – with a total of 11.7 million bushels. Colombia took another 5.6 million bushels, with a handful of countries picking up the remainder, showing a worrying lack of activity amid a competitive global market.

Wheat export inspections barely bested analyst estimates of 14.7 million bushels after reaching 15.5 million bushels last week. Still, wheat faces the same global competitiveness battle that corn is fighting, with totals shrinking 9% below the prior week’s tally. Fortunately, grain markets shrugged off the news, concentrating on other technical factors Monday and pushing futures significantly higher Monday morning.

The Philippines was by far the No. 1 destination for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 4.4 million bushels. Other leading destinations included Japan (2.7 million), Bangladesh (2.0 million) and Italy (1.6 million).

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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