USDA offered up a mostly positive batch of grain inspection data Monday morning, with soybeans showing the most upside after climbing 28% higher week-over-week and topping all trade estimates. Wheat also moved 83% higher last week, while corn faced a moderate decline.

Soybean export inspections reached 49.8 million bushels, trending moderately higher from a week ago and beating all trade estimates, which ranged between 20.2 million and 44.1 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year are now at 977.2 million bushels, remaining 23% above last year’s pace for now.

China was the No. 1 destination for U.S. soybean export inspections last week, accounting for another 20.3 million bushels. Other countries of note included the Netherlands (7.6 million), Taiwan (4.5 million) and Spain (4.4 million).

Wheat export inspections improved from a lackluster performance last week, climbing to 15.2 million bushels. That tally was in the middle of trade guesses, which ranged between 11.0 million and 18.4 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2019/20 marketing year have reached 611.4 million bushels, staying about 12% ahead of last year’s pace.

Japan was by far the No. 1 destination for U.S. wheat export inspections last week, with 4.9 million bushels. Other Asian countries, including Japan (2.5 million), South Korea (1.9 million) and Malaysia (1.5 million) filled out most of the rest of the top five, with Mexico also in the mix with 1.9 million bushels.

Corn export inspections were arguably the biggest disappointment in USDA’s latest data set, sliding 17% lower week-over-week to land at 22.1 million bushels. Last week’s export inspection tally was also on the low end of trade guesses, which ranged between 19.7 million and 31.5 million bushels. The longer-term outlook is also worrisome, with cumulative totals this marketing year down 52% from last year’s pace, with just 533.4 million bushels so far.

Mexico was the runaway No. 1 destination for U.S. corn export inspections last week, taking nearly half of the total with 8.8 million bushels. Guatemala (3.8 million), Japan (3.7 million), Costa Rica (2.6 million) and Colombia (1.5 million) rounded out the top five.

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