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Corn, soybeans and wheat all see week-over-week declines.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

February 22, 2021

2 Min Read
"A lock, used to raise and lower barges, on the frozen Mississippi River
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USDA’s latest weekly grain export inspection report, out Monday morning and covering the week through February 18, didn’t hold a lot of bullish data for traders to digest. Corn, soybeans and wheat all trended moderately lower from a week ago, while all three crops managed to stay within the range of trade estimates.

Corn export inspection volume fell again last week, dropping to 48.5 million bushels. That was on the upper end of trade estimates, which ranged between 19.7 million and 55.1 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year continue to trend significantly better than last year’s pace, with 944.8 million bushels.

Mexico returned as the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 13.1 million bushels. Japan wasn’t far behind, with just under 9.0 million bushels. China, Peru and Morocco rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections moved moderately higher week-over-week, reaching 4.9 million bushels. China accounted for more than 99% of the total, with South Korea picking up the fractional remainder. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year have nearly tripled last year’s pace so far, with 136.3 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections took another week-over-week spill to land at 26.5 million bushels. That was still near the middle of trade estimates, which ranged between 11.0 million and 34.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year remain substantially higher than last year’s pace, however, with 1.871 billion bushels.

China has often been the No. 1 destination for U.S. soybean export inspections, but the country’s typical volume dropped sharply last week as it celebrated the Lunar New Year holiday. China still occupied the top spot, with 5.1 million bushels, narrowly besting inspections to the Netherlands. Egypt, Mexico and Spain filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections faded another 22% week-over-week, falling to 11.9 million bushels. That was also on the lower end of trade estimates, which ranged between 11.0 million and 20.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year remain slightly behind last year’s pace, with 652.5 million bushels.

China was the top destination for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 2.5 million bushels. Peru, Nigeria, Chile and Mexico rounded out the top five.

Click here to read through more highlights from USDA’s latest grain export inspection report.

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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