Corn, soybean and wheat weekly export inspections for the week of Nov. 23 all fell within trade expectations, but that wasn’t all necessarily good news.

Corn export inspections fell almost exactly in the middle of the average trade guess (21 million to 29 million bushels), with 25.1 million bushels. Still, that’s slightly behind last week’s 26.0 million bushels, moderately lower than last year’s tally of 32.6 million bushels, and well-off the target rate needed to meet USDA’s forecasts, which currently sits at 39.0 million bushels. Marketing year-to-date totals are up to 285 million bushels, just 57.5% of 2016/17’s year-to-date volume.

As it often is, Mexico was the No. 1 destination for corn export inspections last week, with 9.7 million bushels. Other top destinations included Japan (4.5 million bushels), Peru (4.4 million bushels), Colombia (2.8 million bushels) and Costa Rica (1.1 million bushels).

Soybean export inspections fell on the low end of the average trade guess (55 million to 66 million bushels), with 58.0 million bushels. That was well below last year’s volume of 82.5 million bushels but does keep ahead of the weekly rate needed to meet USDA’s forecasts, now at 36.1 million bushels. Year-to-date volume of 768 million bushels is moderately behind the cumulative 889 million bushels in 2016/17.

China captured about three-fourths of last week’s total soybean export inspections, with 43.7 million bushels. Other top destinations included the Netherlands (3.1 million bushels), Thailand (2.9 million bushels), Mexico (2.2 million bushels), Taiwan (1.5 million bushels) and Japan (1.3 million bushels).

Weekly export inspections for wheat landed on the high end of the average trade guess (7 million to 14 million bushels), at 12.7 million bushels. That’s better than last week (9.6 million bushels), and this week a year ago (9.6 million bushels). The total still lags behind the weekly volume needed to meet USDA’s forecasts, now at 19.5 million bushels. Year-to-date totals remain slightly behind the 2016/17 marketing year, with 454 million bushels versus 482 million bushels.

Top destinations for wheat export inspections last week included the Philippines (2.9 million bushels), Japan (2.7 million bushels), Colombia (1.6 million bushels), Vietnam (1.5 million bushels) and Nigeria (1.3 million bushels).