USDA’s latest weekly export report, covering February 28 through March 5, had a mix of bearish and bullish news. Soybean volume fell to a marketing-year low, wheat sales slipped 17% from the prior week, but corn boomed 53% above the prior four-week average and topped all analyst estimates.

Corn export sales climbed 91% from a week ago to reach 57.9 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 5.0 million bushels in new crop sales. Analysts offered a more modest range of guesses between 23.6 million and 51.2 million bushels. Japan accounted for around half of the total, with just over 31 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still woefully lower than last year’s pace of 1.065 billion bushels after reaching 599.6 million bushels this past week, however.

Corn export shipments were fairly steady last week, slipping 4% below the prior week’s tally but staying 4% above the prior four-week average, with 33.5 million bushels. Mexico was the No. 1 destination, with 14.5 million bushels. Japan, Chile, South Korea and Costa Rica rounded out the top five.

Meantime, soybean sales slumped to a marketing-year low last week, with 11.1 million bushels in old crop sales plus a small amount of new crop sales (51,000 bushels). Analysts were expecting a larger haul, with guesses ranging between 14.7 million and 30.3 million bushels. Japan was the No. 1 buyer, with nearly 4.5 million bushels, followed by Indonesia, the Netherlands, Colombia and Mexico. Total sales for the 2019/20 marketing year are still maintaining a small lead over last year’s pace, with 1.1097 billion bushels so far.

Soybean export shipments also slumped, falling 21% below the prior four-week average to 20.9 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 5.1 million bushels. Japan, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Mexico rounded out the top five.

Wheat export sales slipped 17% from a week ago and 6% below the prior four-week average with 16.6 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 1.0 million bushels in new crop sales. That tally fell mostly in the middle of disparate trade guesses, which ranged between 8.2 million and 24.8 million. South Korea bought the most U.S. wheat last week, with purchases totaling 5.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are up to 687.6 million bushels, maintaining a 10% lead over last year’s pace.

Wheat export shipments were also down 31% from a week ago and 17% below the prior four-week average, dropping to 16.4 million bushels. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 3.5 million bushels. Other top destinations last week included South Korea, Mexico, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

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