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Weekly grain movement: Corn comes in strong again

Soybeans and wheat volume also improves from a week ago.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

March 28, 2022

2 Min Read
ship loaded with corn
Getty/iStockphoto

The latest set of grain export inspection numbers from USDA, out Monday morning and covering the week through March 24, held most bullish data for traders to consider. Corn turned in another strong performance, moving modestly higher from a week ago and making it to the very high end of analyst estimates. Soybeans and wheat also moved higher week-over-week and stayed rangebound versus trade guesses.

Corn export inspections improved 7% from a week ago to reach 63.2 million bushels. That was also on the upper end of trade estimates, which came in between 39.4 million and 65.5 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still running moderately behind last year’s pace, with 1.143 billion bushels.

China was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 18.0 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, Colombia and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections saw slight week-over-week gains, reaching 13.5 million bushels. China accounted for the majority of that volume, with Cameroon, Japan, Mexico and Haiti filling out the remainder. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year remain modestly behind last year’s pace, with 164.0 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections firmed 14% higher from the prior week, reaching 23.1 million bushels. That was a bit toward the lower end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 18.4 million and 29.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still well behind last year’s pace, with 1.596 billion bushels.

China was once again the dominant destination for U.S. soybean export inspections with another 10.6 million bushels last week. Vietnam, Egypt, Germany and Mexico filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections trended slightly higher week-over-week, making it to 12.5 million bushels. That was toward the lower end of trade guesses, which ranged between 11.0 million and 18.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year remain moderately below last year’s pace, with 620.8 million bushels.

Mexico and Japan were the top two destinations for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with each country taking 3.1 million bushels. The Philippines, Colombia and Nigeria rounded out the top five.

Click here to read more data from the latest USDA grain export inspection 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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