Farm Progress

Weekly Export Sales: Soybeans slip but hit important milestone

Corn exports stumbled, while wheat outperformed expectations.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

June 21, 2018

3 Min Read
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Soybean export sales for the week ending June 14 fell beneath the prior week’s totals and couldn’t match trade estimates but still limped across a proverbial finish line, chalking up enough cumulative sales in the 2017/18 marketing year to meet USDA forecasts. Corn and wheat exports fared mixed results last week, meantime.

Soybean exports found 11.1 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 8.4 million bushels of new crop sales for a total of 19.5 million bushels. That total was more than a third lower than the prior week’s 29.8 million bushels and also modestly behind trade estimates of 25.7 million bushels. Cumulative exports for 2017/18 have now exceeded USDA’s forecasts for this marketing year.

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Soybean exports shipments last week reached 43.2 million bushels – also ahead of the weekly rate needed to reach USDA forecasts, now at 26.7 million bushels. The Netherlands was the No. 1 destination, with 8.8 million bushels. Other top destinations included Egypt, Taiwan, Mexico and Vietnam.

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Corn export sales last week tallied 6.5 million bushels in old crop sales, plus another 13.4 million bushels in new crop sales, for total sales of 19.9 million bushels. That total was dismally short of both the prior week’s 46.3 million bushels and trade estimates of 44.3 million bushels. Still, the weekly rate needed to match USDA forecasts moved lower, to an increasingly manageable 7.2 million bushels.

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Corn export shipments came in at a more robust 40.5 million bushels, but that total also fell short of matching the weekly rate needed to meet USDA forecasts, now at 58.2 million bushels. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 21.7 million bushels, followed by Mexico, Spain, South Korea and Peru.

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Wheat export sales last week reached 17.0 million bushels, which was a moderate improvement over both the prior week’s total of 11.1 million bushels and trade estimates of 13.8 million bushels. The rate needed to reach USDA forecasts in the young 2018/19 marketing year (which began June 1) is now 15.3 million bushels.

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Wheat export shipments reached 13.6 million bushels last week. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 2.9 million bushels. Other top destinations included other Southeast Asian countries such as South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

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Sorghum export sales rebounded to 2.2 million bushels, all of which were earmarked for unknown destinations. Export shipments of just 43,305 bushels slumped 78% below the prior week and 96% under the four-week average. Mexico was the sole destination.

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For more charts and export data, click the download button below.

About the Author(s)

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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