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Corn and wheat totals fail to impress.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

February 10, 2022

2 Min Read
grain onto export ship
Getty/iStockphoto

USDA’s latest export sales report, out Thursday morning and covering the week through February 3, held another mixed set of data for traders to digest. Soybeans fared the best by far, hauling in a bounty of old and new crop sales while besting the entire range of analyst estimates. Corn and wheat sales were disappointing in comparison, with each commodity slumping significantly lower week-over-week.

Corn export sales reached 23.2 million bushels, which was a 50% drop from the prior week and 43% below the prior four-week average. That was also on the low end of trade estimates, which ranged between 19.7 million and 39.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year remain slightly behind last year’s pace, with 815.5 million bushels.

Corn export shipments fared better but still slid 6% below the prior four-week average, to 45.2 million bushels. Japan was the No. 1 destination, with 13.0 million bushels. China, Canada, Mexico and Colombia rounded out the top five.

Sorghum exports jumped 74% higher week-over-week but were still down 38% from the prior four-week average, with 5.5 million bushels. That grain is largely bound for China, with Eritrea picking up the small remainder. Cumulative totals for the current marketing year are now at 88.3 million bushels, remaining moderately behind last year’s pace.

Soybean exports captured 58.7 million bushels in old crop sales, plus another 32.9 million bushels in new crop sales for a grand total of 91.6 million bushels. That was above the entire range of trade guesses, which came in between 42.3 million and 84.5 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year increased to 1.384 billion bushels but still trail last year’s pace by more than 433 million bushels.

Soybean export shipments slipped 9% below the prior four-week average to 47.8 million bushels. China again accounted for more than half of the total, with 26.7 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, Egypt and Bangladesh filled out the top five.

Old crop wheat sales fell 75% below the prior four-week average to 3.1 million bushels. New crop sales chipped in another 1.8 million bushels, for a total of 4.9 million bushels. That was on the very low end of trade estimates that ranged between 4.6 million and 25.7 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year remain moderately below last year’s pace, with 471.2 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments improved 9% from the prior four-week average to 14.0 million bushels. South Korea was the No. 1 destination, with 3.6 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, Panama and Singapore rounded out the top five.

Click here for more data from USDA’s latest report, covering January 28 to February 3.

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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