Weekly Beef Export Sales Hit Marketing Year High

Cattle on the Birdwell Clark Ranch in Henrietta, Texas. (Photo: USDA NRCS Texas)

WASHINGTON, DC – USDA released their Weekly Export Sales report on Thursday. According to the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS), for the week ending July 30, 2020 wheat sales increased 10 percent from the previous week on the heels of big purchases from the Philippines, Taiwan, and Brazil while exports fell 4 percent from last week.

Sales of old crop (2019/2020) U.S. corn were more than disappointing, the 29,300 metric tons (MT) sold last week represented a marketing-year low. New crop (2020/2021) sales were better with China rumored to be a big buyer (officially unknown destinations) and exports were more than 971-thousand metric tons. Sorghum sales have become a story of feast and famine, and following a festive story last week sales this week fell 95 percent to just over 4-thousand MT.

Exports were also down considerably with China and Japan the two destinations for the U.S. shipments. Germany and Egypt were the top buyers of U.S. soybeans for the week, even as net sales fell 29 percent from the previous week for old crop sales (2019/2020). New crop sales, however, lit up the scoreboard as China purchase almost 2-million MT of a total of 3.3 million in sales for 2020/2021 delivery.

Speaking of deliveries, exports increased by more than 40 percent on shipments to Germany, China, and Mexico. Vietnam was the major buyer of old crop cotton as all sales from the week were up noticeably from the previous week. As for weekly exports, 321-thousand bales shipped to China, Vietnam, and Turkey – an 18 percent week over week increase.

For the livestock, beef sales hit a marketing-year high (29,500 MT) with big purchases from South Korea and Japan. Net sales for U.S. pork were up 24 percent (39,600 MT) on purchases from China, Mexico, and Canada.
(SOURCE: Foreign Agriculture Service)