Export Sales Disappointing Last Week
International buyers scale back their purchases in early March.
Bryce Knorr
Published: Mar 19, 2009
Foreign buyers scaled back purchases of U.S. grain in early March, even as futures began to rally off 2009 lows. Disappointing export sales could provide the market with an early test today of bullishness caused by the falling dollar.
Net new bookings for corn, soybeans and wheat all came in below expectations as the U.S. selling seasons wind down. Competition remains fierce, with new crops from the southern hemisphere hitting a pipeline that's for the most part already filled.
Wheat sales came in a 8.7 million bushels, below estimates but on track to meet USDA's forecast for the marketing year. Regular buyers out of Asia and the Americas dominated the list of buyers, with only a scattering of business out of the Middle East. That lucrative trade — swelled this year by drought in the region — continues to be originated out of Eastern Europe and the Black Sea.
Corn sales totaled just 17.3 million bushels in the latest week, well below expectations and less than half the total from the previous week. Japan as usual led the list of buyers, and total sales to that country are about the same as last year at this time. However, shipments to other regions of the world are much shower, replaced by cheaper feed wheat in many cases.
Soybean sales also were disappointing at 12.5 million bushels, with old crop business a marketing year low. China bought 7.2 million bushels of new crop beans from the U.S., but less than a million bushels of old crop.
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Tagged: wheat, usda, soybeans, soybean, farmfutures
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