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Wheat also down week-over-week, with soybeans moving higher.

Ben Potter, Senior editor

April 20, 2020

2 Min Read
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Corn has dominated all grain export inspections in recent months and continued that trend for the week ending April 16, but its overall total was much less impressive after falling to nearly half of the prior week’s volume. Wheat export inspections also fell from a week ago, while soybeans took a modest step forward.

Corn export inspections reached 26.9 million bushels last week, spilling 42% below the prior week’s tally and falling below all trade estimates, which ranged between 33.5 million and 51.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still severely behind last year’s pace, now at 834.7 million bushels.

Mexico was once again the top destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with another 9.7 million bushels. Colombia, Vietnam, Japan and El Salvador rounded out the top five.

Sorghum export inspections have nearly doubled last year’s pace after notching another 7.1 million bushels last week. China accounted for the bulk of that volume, with 5.3 million bushels. Ethiopia picked up most of the remainder.

Soybean export inspections tracked higher for a second straight week, climbing to 19.8 million bushels. That was on the high end of trade estimates, which ranged between 11.0 million and 20.2 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are still protecting a modest lead from last year’s pace, with 1.209 billion bushels.

China (2.7 million) and Taiwan (2.6 million bushels) were the top two destinations for U.S. soybean export inspections last week. Spain, Egypt and Bangladesh filled out the top five.

Wheat export inspections slid 29% week-over-week to land at 17.2 million bushels, which was also on the low end of trade estimates that ranged between 14.7 million and 25.7 million bushels. Still, 2019/20’s cumulative totals are maintaining a modest lead over last year’s pace, with 807 million bushels.

Mexico led all destinations for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 3.3 million bushels. A flurry of Asian nations that included Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea rounded out the top five.

Click here to read the entire latest grain export inspection report 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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