USDA’s latest set of grain export data, out Thursday morning and covering the week through August 17, held mostly solid numbers for traders to digest. Soybeans turned in the strongest performance after jumping higher than the entire range of analyst estimates. Corn and wheat volumes were also relatively bullish, staying on the higher end of trade guesses served up prior to today’s report.

Corn exports found 27.4 million bushels of combined old and new crop sales. That was toward the higher end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 7.9 million and 39.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are still substantially below last year’s pace after reaching 1.507 billion bushels.
Corn export shipments moved 12% higher week-over-week and were 1% above the prior four-week average, with 19.5 million bushels. Mexico, Japan, China, Honduras and Canada were the top five destinations.

Old crop sorghum sales slumped to a marketing low after facing net reductions of 2.7 million bushels. New crop sales reached 7.2 million bushels bound for unknown destinations and China, leaving a net positive of 4.5 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are trending at less than a third of last year’s pace so far, with 85.5 million bushels.

Soybean exports climbed to 58.2 million bushels in combined old and new crop sales last week. That was better than the entire set of trade estimates, which ranged between 20.2 million and 53.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are still tracking a bit below last year’s pace so far, with 1.893 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments were 40% better than the prior four-week average, with 16.5 million bushels. Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Mexico and Indonesia were the top five destinations.

Wheat exports moved to 14.9 million bushels last week, which was a 3% improvement versus the prior four-week average. That was also toward the higher end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 9.2 million and 16.5 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2023/24 marketing year are now slightly above last year’s pace, with 129.0 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments tracked 50% higher week-over-week but were 7% below the prior four-week average, with 12.7 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Chile and Taiwan were the top five destinations.

Click here to read more highlights from the latest UDSA export sales report.