Farm Futures logo

Export Sales: Largely lackluster results

Corn, soybeans and wheat post rangebound results but fail to impress.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

April 27, 2023

2 Min Read
Ship with containers
Getty Images

USDA’s new export sales report, out Thursday morning and covering the week through April 20, didn’t hold much impressive data for traders to digest. Grain prices remained in the red immediately following the report. Old crop wheat sales trended moderately lower, while old crop corn sales found moderate week-over-week gains. Soybean sales bounced back from terrible week-ago results but were still pedestrian. All three commodities stayed within the range of analyst estimates.

Old crop corn exports reached 15.7 million bushels, with no additional new crop sales last week. Old crop sales were 49% below the prior four-week average. Total sales were toward the lower end of trade estimates, which ranged between 3.9 million and 47.2 million bushels. Cumulative sales for the 2022/23 marketing year remain substantially below last year’s pace so far, with 931.9 million bushels since September 1.

Corn export shipments managed to stay 7% above the prior four-week average, reaching 42.4 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, China, Colombia and Peru were the top five destinations.

Sorghum export sales saw mild net reductions, which was noticeably below the prior four-week average. Total sales are still far below last year’s pace so far, with 38.8 million bushels.

Soybean export sales only reached 11.4 million bushels last week, but that was still 38% above the prior four-week average. Total sales were slightly on the low end of trade estimates, which ranged between 2.8 million and 23.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are fractionally below last year’s pace, with 1.717 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments eroded 35% below the prior four-week average, to 16.7 million bushels. China, Germany, Japan, Mexico and Indonesia were the top five destinations.

Wheat exports fared better than corn and soybeans after gathering old and new crop sales totaling 16.9 million bushels last week. That was also toward the higher end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 2.8 million and 23.0 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are slightly behind last year’s pace, with 595.0 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments improved 23% above the prior four-week average, with 11.2 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea were the top five destinations.

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

Read more about:

Exports

About the Author

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.

Subscribe to receive top agriculture news
Be informed daily with these free e-newsletters

You May Also Like