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Wheat jumps ahead from the prior week’s tally, with soybeans down slightly

Ben Potter, Senior editor

February 13, 2020

2 Min Read
Pouring corn grain into tractor trailer after harvest
fotokostic/iStock/Getty Images Plus

USDA’s latest grain export sales data, covering the week ending February 6, once again showed corn sales at the head of the pack, although volume came in 22% below the prior week’s tally. Soybean sales also slid 8% lower than a week ago, with wheat exports up noticeably week-over-week.

Corn export sales were for 38.1 million bushels, which was moderately below the prior week’s tally of 49.1 million bushels but in the middle of trade guesses, which ranged between 27.6 million and 51.2 million bushels. Last week’s total also slipped 9% below the prior four-week average. Japan was by far the No. 1 destination, with 15.1 million bushels. South Korea, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Mexico rounded out the top five.

Corn export shipments reached a marketing-year high, with 30.8 million bushels after jumping 31% higher than a week ago and 41% above the prior four-week average. Mexico (9.0 million), Japan (8.0 million) and Colombia (7.5 million) accounted for the bulk of that total.

Soybean export sales sputtered, in contrast, slipping 8% below the prior week’s tally to 23.7 million bushels in old crop sales plus 200,000 bushels in new crop sales. The total was still good enough to inch 2% above the prior four-week average and hang on the low end of trade guesses, which ranged between 22.0 million and 36.7 million bushels. China (4.9 million), Egypt (4.4 million) and Bangladesh (2.2 million) took the lion’s share of the total.

Soybean export shipments were even more lackluster, tumbling 58% lower from a week ago and 50% below the four-week average, with 22.5 million bushels. Bangladesh was the No. 1 destination, with 3.2 million bushels, followed by Mexico, China, the Netherlands and Taiwan.

Wheat export sales jumped 90% higher than a week ago and stayed 10% above the prior four-week average after totaling 23.6 million bushels in old crop sales plus another 1.6 million bushels in new crop sales. That tally nearly beat out all trade guesses, which ranged between 11.0 million and 25.7 million bushels. Nigeria (4.8 million), the Philippines (3.9 million) and South Korea (3.3 million) led all destinations.

Wheat export shipments also improved 25% week-over-week and 26% above the prior four-week average, with 18.6 million bushels. Nigeria was the No. 1 destination, with 3.6 million bushels. Bangladesh, the Philippines, Mexico and Japan rounded out the top five.

Click here for more export sales highlights from USDA.

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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