Price falls provoke private export sales spurt for US corn, wheat, soy

Plunging prices across the US wheat, corn and soybean complex have stirred export sales as a flurry of sizeable sales saw private exporters moving over half a million mt of produce, the USDA reported Tuesday.

Algeria took 120,000 mt of hard red winter wheat from the 2017/18 marketing year, with Mexico securing 152,000 mt of corn.

Alongside that, 168,300 mt of soybeans went to Unknown Destinations while 492,000 mt of soybean that had previously been marked for delivery to Unknown Destinations was reclassified to China.

Prices across all three commodities have tumbled in recent days, with the front month CBOT soft red wheat contract falling from $4.2725/bu on November 17, to close at $3.8775/bu on December 11, while corn’s front month December contract has fallen from $3.4525/bu on November 22, to $3.3650/bu on December 11.

Soybeans have seen a more spectacular fall over a shorter period, as weather concerns in South America drove the front month contract to $10.0850/bu on December 5, before poor export data undermined prices and saw the contract fall to $9.8250/bu by December 12.