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Export Sales: Lower-than-expected results posted

Analysts were generally hoping to see larger tallies this past week

Ben Potter, Senior editor

December 1, 2022

2 Min Read
Container ship in the North Sea
Getty/iStockphoto

USDA’s new set of export sales data, out Thursday morning and covering the week through November 24, didn’t have a lot of bullish data for traders to digest. Corn totals fell to the very low end of trade estimates, as did soybean tallies. Wheat totals were even more disappointing, falling below the entire range of trade guesses last week.

Corn exports saw 24.9 million bushels in old and new crop sales last week. That was on the very low end of trade estimates, which ranged between 18.7 million and 43.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are off to a sluggish start compared to last year’s pace, with 227.3 million bushels.

Corn export shipments were also pedestrian, with 13.6 million bushels. Mexico, China, Japan, Canada and Honduras were the top five destinations.

Sorghum export shipments only reached 200,000 bushels last week. The entirety of that grain is bound for Mexico. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are only at 4.0 million bushels – well below last year’s pace of 29.7 million bushels so far.

Soybean exports saw 25.0 million bushels in old crop sales last week, with no additional new crop sales. That was toward the lower end of trade estimates, which came in between 17.5 million and 40.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are trending moderately behind last year’ space, with 700.5 million bushels.

Soybean export shipments were more robust, reaching 77.8 million bushels. China, the Netherlands, Spain the United Kingdom and Mexico were the top five destinations.

Wheat exports totaled 6.0 million bushels in combined old and new crop sales last week. That was below the entire range of trade guesses, which came in between 11.0 million and 26.6 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are slightly below last year’s pace, with 348.9 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments were a bit better, at just under 10.0 million bushels. Taiwan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain and Algeria were the top five destinations.

Click here to see more results from the latest UDSA export sales report.

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.

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