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Weekly Grain Movement: Corn volume solid, wheat misses the mark

Soybeans post rangebound results last week.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

January 29, 2024

2 Min Read
Ship getting loaded at port
Getty Images/iStockPhoto

USDA’s latest grain export inspection report, out Monday morning and covering the week through January 25, didn’t have much bullish data for traders to digest. Corn made moderate-week-over-week improvements while posting rangebound results. Soybean and wheat volume were down from the prior week’s tally, in contrast. Wheat totals, in particular, were especially lackluster after fading below all analyst estimates.

Corn export inspections moved to 35.5 million bushels last week, bettering the prior week’s tally of 29.4 million bushels. That was near the middle of analyst estimates, which ranged between 27.6 million and 43.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2023/24 marketing year are still moderately higher than last year’s pace so far, with 615.6 million bushels.

Mexico was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 13.2 million bushels. Japan, El Salvador, China and Colombia rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections faded moderately below the prior week’s tally after reaching 2.5 million bushels. The majority of that volume is bound for China, with Mexico picking up the modest remainder. Cumulative totals for the 2023/24 marketing year are more than quintupling last year’s pace so far, with 105.6 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections made it to 32.7 million bushels last week. That was near the middle of trade estimates, which ranged between 18.4 million and 47.8 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2023/24 marketing year remain moderately below last year’s pace so far, with 1.017 billion bushels since the beginning of September.

China was the No. 1 destination of U.S. soybean export inspections last week, with 17.9 million bushels. Mexico, Egypt, Italy and Japan filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections were lackluster last week after only reaching 9.7 million bushels. That was also below the entire range of analyst estimates, which came in between 12.9 million and 20.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2023/24 marketing year are still moderately lower than last year’s pace so far, with 403.8 million bushels.

Mexico topped all destinations for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 2.2 million bushels. The Philippines, South Korea, Chile and El Salvador rounded out the top five.

Click here for more highlights from the latest USDA grain export inspection report, which covers the week through January 25.

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Exports

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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