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Weekly grain movement: No real surprises

Corn, soybean and wheat totals come in largely as expected.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

May 9, 2022

2 Min Read
cargo ship in sea
Getty/iStockphoto

Today’s grain export inspection report, covering the week through May 5, didn’t hold a lot of shocking data for traders to digest. Corn once again fared the best, staying on the higher end of analyst estimates despite facing a moderate week-over-week decline. Soybeans and wheat volumes were more lackluster, also falling below the prior week’s tally and landing on the lower end of trade guesses.

Corn export inspections made it to 54.8 million bushels last week. That was on the upper end of trade guesses, which ranged between 39.4 million and 66.9 million bushels despite facing a week-over-week decline of 18%. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still moderately below last year’s pace, with 1.495 billion bushels.

Japan was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 12.6 million bushels. Mexico, China, Colombia and Spain rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections made moderate week-over-week improvements, reaching 10.6 million bushels. That grain is largely bound for China, with Mexico picking up the modest remainder. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are slightly behind last year’s pace, with 219.6 million bushels.

Soybean export inspections slid moderately lower week-over-week with 18.5 million bushels. That was also toward the lower end of analyst estimates, which ranged between 14.7 million and 32.5 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year remain well below last year’s pace, with 1.753 billion bushels.

China was again the top destination for U.S. soybean export inspections last week, with 7.7 million bushels. Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Mexico filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections were fairly lackluster, eroding 40% lower from the prior week to 8.7 million bushels. That was also toward the lower end of trade estimates, which ranged between 3.7 million and 15.6 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year continue to lose ground verses year-ago totals, with 698.1 million bushels.

Indonesia was the No. 1 destination for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 2.0 million bushels. Japan, Mexico, Nigeria and the Dominican Republic rounded out the top five.

Click here to see 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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