Two weeks ago, grain exports found themselves in a slump – perhaps understandable, given the Thanksgiving holiday. Then it perhaps also comes as little surprise that this past week (ending December 5) featured a big rebound in corn, soybean and wheat sales.

Corn export sales reached 34.4 million bushels this past week, trending 60% higher than a week ago and 28% above the prior four-week average. That total also topped all analyst guesses, which ranged between 15.7 million and 31.5 million bushels. Mexico took the lion’s share, with 20.4 million bushels, with Japan, the Canada, Colombia and a few others in the mix.

Corn export shipments of 20.9 million bushels were 7% higher than the prior week’s total but down 12% from the prior four-week average. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 10.3 million bushels, followed by Japan, Colombia, Panama and Honduras.

Soybean export sales climbed 54% above the prior week’s tally of 25.1 million bushels to reach 38.6 million bushels, but that remains 17% below the prior four-week tally. Still, the total landed on the high end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 18.4 million and 40.4 million bushels. Unknown destinations (9.2 million) and China (8.9 million) topped all destinations last week.

China still has more than 87 million bushels in outstanding U.S. soybean sales, although a flurry of purchases earlier this week will help draw down that total as the two countries continue to work toward a partial trade agreement.

Soybean export shipments fared better, at 53.0 million bushels, but still slipped 4% below the prior week’s tally and 13% below the prior four-week average. China accounted for the bulk of this volume, with nearly 33.0 million bushels, followed by Bangladesh, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Wheat export sales jumped from 8.4 million bushels to 18.5 million bushels this past week, which was a 33% improvement from the prior four-week average. It also topped all analyst estimates, with guesses ranging between 7.3 million and 16.5 million. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 3.7 million, followed by the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and a handful of others.

Wheat export shipments rebounded from a marketing year low with 14.3 million bushels last week, but that still remained 4% below the prior four-week average. Japan was the top destination, with 2.6 million bushels, followed by Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea.

Click here for a full rundown of the most recent USDA export sales highlights.