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Weekly grain movement: Corn exports continue strong pace

Soybean and wheat volumes find rangebound results last week.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

May 30, 2023

2 Min Read
Large cargo ship being loaded with grain
Getty Images

USDA’s latest round of grain export inspection data, out Tuesday morning (delayed one day due to Monday’s Memorial Day holiday) and covering the week through May 25, held another mixed bag of data for traders to digest. Corn volume eased slightly week-over-week but stayed near the upper end of analyst estimates. Soybeans and wheat numbers were fairly pedestrian but remained rangebound last week.

Corn export inspections slid slightly lower to 51.7 million bushels last week. That was still toward the high end of trade estimates, which ranged between 23.6 million and 55.1 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are still well below last year’s pace after reaching 1.130 billion bushels.

China was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 18.4 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections were sharply below the prior week’s total after only reaching 1.3 million bushels. The bulk of that total is headed for the African nation of Eritrea, with Japan and Mexico picking up the modest remainder. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are still running significantly below last year’s pace, with 65.7 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections improved moderately to reach 8.8 million bushels last week. That was also near the middle of analyst estimates, which ranged between 3.7 million and 14.7 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are tracking slightly below last year’s pace, with 1.780 billion bushels.

Indonesia was the top destination for U.S. soybean export inspections last week, with 2.5 million bushels. Mexico, Japan, Egypt and Colombia filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections faded moderately below the prior week’s total to 14.0 million bushels. That was very near the middle of trade estimates, which ranged between 7.3 million and 22.0 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2022/23 marketing year are slightly below last year’s pace so far, with 718.6 million bushels.

Thailand was the No. 1 destination for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 4.4 million bushels. The Dominican Republic, Japan, Venezuela and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights from the latest USDA grain export inspection report, covering the week through May 25.

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Exports

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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