Grain export inspections for the week ending Aug. 11 came in largely as expected when USDA released its latest report on Monday morning. Soybean volume fared the best, climbing to the higher end of analyst estimates offered prior to the report. Corn volume saw a minor week-over-week move lower, meantime, and wheat fell to nearly half of the prior week’s tally. Grain prices were already in the red on Monday morning and continued that trend after the report’s release.

Corn export inspections reached 21.2 million bushels last week. That was on the very low end of trade guesses, which ranged between 18.7 million and 31.5 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still significantly below last year’s pace, with 2.090 billion bushels.

China was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 10.8 million bushels. Mexico, Panama, Honduras and Trinidad rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections were nearly level from week-ago results, with 2.4 million bushels. China accounted for around 90% of the total, with Mexico picking up the remainder. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still running slightly ahead of last year’s pace, with 289.7 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections trended moderately lower week-over-week to 27.4 million bushels. That was still good enough to reach the upper level of trade estimates, which ranged between 11.0 million and 31.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are gaining ground on last year’s pace but still remain modestly behind year-ago totals, with 2.031 billion bushels.

China was the No. 1 destination for U.S. soybean export inspections, with 10.3 million bushels. Mexico, Germany, South Korea and Italy filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections fell from 23.4 million bushels a week ago down to 13.7 million bushels. That was also toward the lower end of trade estimates, which ranged between 9.2 million and 24.8 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are moderately below last year’s pace so far, with 142.7 million bushels.

Mexico topped all destinations for U.S. wheat export inspections, with 4.2 million bushels. The Philippines, Brazil, Japan and Portugal rounded out the top five.

Click here to see more data from the latest USDA grain export inspection report.