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Corn, soybean and wheat volume all take a step back week-over-week.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

February 1, 2021

2 Min Read
grain barge river elevator
This barge on the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa is taking on a load of grain, either corn or soybeans, from area farms.DarcyMaulsby /iStock/Thinkstock.

USDA’s newest set of grain inspection data, out Monday morning and covering the week through January 30, saw volume trend moderately lower for corn, soybeans and wheat. While all three crops stayed within the range of trade guesses, soybeans pushed to the upper end of analyst estimates, while corn and wheat spilled to the lower end of those guesses.

Corn export inspections fell 21% week-over-week, dropping to 43.5 million bushels. That was also on the lower end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 39.4 million and 53.1 million bushels. Still, cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are close to doubling last year’s pace, with 782 million bushels since September 1.

Japan was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 12.7 million bushels. China, Mexico, Colombia and Peru rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections improved slightly week-over-week, making it to 7.5 million bushels. China accounted for 100% of last week’s total. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are close to triple last year’s pace, with 118.5 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections eased 15% lower week-over-week, falling to 65.9 million bushels. That was still on the upper end of trade estimates, which ranged between 40.4 million and 79.0 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year continue to grow their impressive lead over last year’s pace, reaching 1.736 billion bushels.

China continues to dominate soybean export inspections on a weekly basis, again taking in more than half the total with 41.5 million bushels. The Netherlands, Mexico, Italy and Saudi Arabia filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections took a moderate week-over-week spill, falling to 14.6 million bushels. That was also on the lower end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 12.9 million and 20.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year continue to track slightly behind last year’s pace, with 607.9 million bushels.

South Korea led all destinations for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 2.7 million bushels. Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Nigeria 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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