Chad Smith, NAFB News Service

Corn and wheat export sales jumped higher week-to-week while soybean sales dropped. The USDA says corn sales to overseas buyers in the seven days that ended on January 21 came in at 1.85 million metric tons, up 29 percent from the previous week and 61 percent from the prior four-week average. Japan was the biggest buyer of corn, purchasing 695,000 metric tons, followed by Mexico at more than 145,000 tons, and Colombia at almost 117,000 tons. Wheat sales rose 15 percent over the previous week to 380,500 metric tons, which is also 13 percent higher than the four-week average. China bought 130,000 metric tons of wheat, while Mexico purchased 67,400 tons, Japan bought just shy of 61,000 tons, South Korea 54,000 tons, and the Philippines 53,4000. Soybean sales slipped 74 percent from the prior week, coming in at 466,000 metric tons, 45 percent below the four-week average. China was the biggest buyer at 322,500 metric tons, followed by Mexico at 197,800 tons. For the 2021-2022 marketing year that starts on September 1, the government reported sales of 1.56 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans. Unknown destinations bought 654,000 metric tons, while China took in 586,000 tons.