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Weekly Grain Movement – ‘Big Three’ all move lower

Corn, soybeans and wheat fail to match the prior week’s volume

Ben Potter, Senior editor

December 7, 2020

2 Min Read

Grain export inspections for the week ending December 3 showed slight to moderate declines for corn, soybeans and wheat. Soybeans fared the best, topping all trade estimates and moving slightly below the prior week’s tally. Wheat landed in the middle of trade estimates, with corn failing to match analyst expectations last week.

Corn export inspections fell 29% week-over-week to land at 28.9 million bushels. That was also below all trade estimates, which ranged between 29.5 million and 43.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still way ahead of last year’s pace, with 434.1 million bushels since September 1.

Mexico was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 12.4 million bushels. China wasn’t too far behind, with 10.7 million bushels. Costa Rica, Guatemala and Taiwan rounded out the top five.

Sorghum failed to notch any export inspections last week after drumming up 14.0 million bushels the week before. Still, cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are still nearly triple last year’s pace, with 57.2 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections slipped 5% lower from the prior week’s total but were still robust, at 84.4 million bushels. That was also better than all trade estimates, which ranged between 55.1 million and 80.8 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are much improved versus last year’s pace, already topping 1 billion bushels (1.081 billion) since September 1.

China continues to by far outpace all other destinations for U.S. soybean export inspections, with another 57.0 million bushels this past week. Egypt, the Netherlands, Thailand and Japan filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections saw another 19.5 million bushels last week, slipping fractionally below the prior week’s tally and staying in the middle of trade estimates that ranged between 14.7 million and 22.0 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2020/21 marketing year are maintaining a slim lead over last year’s pace, with 494.8 million bushels.

Japan (3.3 million) and Mexico (3.0 million) topped all destinations for U.S. wheat export inspections. China, Thailand and the Philippines rounded out the top five.

Click here to walk through additional data from USDA’s latest grain export inspection report.

 

Related:Study: U.S. grain exports support 271,000 jobs

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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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