USDA’s weekly grain export inspection report, out Monday morning, showed a moderate boost in corn volume for the week ending March 12. Other grains didn’t fare so well, meantime, with soybeans showing a moderate week-over-week drop, while wheat volume was down slightly this past week.

Corn export inspections reached 38.5 million bushels last week, improving 19% from the prior week and landing on the high end of trade estimates that ranged between 27.6 million and 41.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year still remain severely behind last year’s pace, however, reaching just 627 million bushels so far.

Mexico dominated all destinations for U.S. corn export inspections last week, accounting for another 13.2 million bushels. Japan, Colombia, Guatemala and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Soybean export inspections were relatively disappointing last week, coming in at just 16.0 million bushels, a 25% week-over-week decline. Trade expectations were generally too bullish, with a range between 14.7 million and 27.6 million bushels. But thanks to a stronger start during the 2019/20 marketing year, cumulative totals have remained 10% above last year’s pace so far, now at 1.123 billion bushels.

China was noticeably absent from the list of U.S. soybean export inspections last week. Egypt instead took the No. 1 position, accounting for 6.3 million bushels. Other top destinations included the Netherlands, Mexico, Japan and Thailand.

Wheat export inspections saw a modest decline last week, slipping 2% to 16.5 million bushels. That total was in line with trade guesses that ranged between 12.9 million and 22.0 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year have also maintained a modest lead over last year’s pace, now at 725 million bushels.

The Philippines captured the No. 1 spot for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 2.4 million bushels. Japan (2.1 million), Nigeria (1.9 million) and Indonesia (1.9 million) were not far behind.

Click here to read the entire latest grain export inspection report from USDA.