USDA’s weekly grain export inspection report, released Monday morning, showed a mixed but mostly bearish set of data for the week ending March 19. Soybeans fared the best last week, climbing 15% above the prior week’s tally, while corn and wheat volume declined from a week ago.

Soybean export inspections reached 21.0 million bushels last week, moving moderately ahead of the prior week’s tally and staying in the middle of trade guesses that ranged between 16.5 million and 23.9 million bushels. Year-to-date totals for the 2019/20 marketing season are maintaining a modest lead over last year’s pace after topping 1.146 billion bushels.

China made a welcome return to the ledger last week but still only accounted for 2.6 million bushels in soybean export inspections. Egypt once again occupied the top position, with 4.7 million bushels. Other leading destinations last week included Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia.

Corn export inspections were relatively disappointing last week, easing 17% week-over-week to 32.1 million bushels. That tally was still good enough to stay within trade estimates that ranged between 27.6 million and 41.3 million bushels. For the 2019/20 marketing year, cumulative totals of 659.4 million bushels remain woefully behind last year’s pace of 1.119 billion bushels, however.

Japan was the No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, with 10.1 million bushels. Rounding out the top five were Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and South Korea.

Wheat export inspections also declined last week, moving to 12.8 million bushels. Analysts were anticipating a bigger haul, with trade guesses ranging between 12.9 million and 22.0 million bushels. Still, cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year have maintained a modest lead from last year after reaching 738.2 million bushels.

No single country dominated U.S. wheat export inspections last week, but Taiwan landed at No. 1, with 2.0 million bushels, followed closely by Indonesia, with just under 2.0 million bushels. Malaysia, the Philippines and Colombia filled out the top five.

Click here to read the entire latest grain export inspection report from USDA.