European wheat markets continued to find support today, alongside gains in US corn markets.

Weekly US export sales data was supportive for corn following the sales to China earlier in the week. At 1.33Mt, corn sales were up 70% from last week, and up 26% over the prior 4-week average. Old crop sales predominantly consisted of 671.5Kt to China and 418.8Kt to Mexico. While for 2022/23, net sales of 403.1Kt were also impressive, again due to China. Exports of 1.56Mt were inline with the pervious four weeks and continue at pace. Even at what is an elevated market, global demand has remained strong.

US wheat exports were however less impressive, at just 96.1Kt, down 39% from last week and down 30% below the last four week’s average.

On the face of it, and soybean sales were somewhat disappointing at 548.9Kt, down 31% from last week and 41% from the prior four week average. However, this masks the fact that old crop soybean sales have been impressive for some time now, requiring the USDA to make repeated increases to projected full season exports. New crop sales of 458Kt also continued to impress.

In the USDA’s annual oilseed report for Brazil, looking ahead to next season and the soybean area expansion trend is at risk of slowing, in part due to increased fertiliser and input costs. Read the full report here

Despite the US government announcing an extension for e15 use throughout the summer, weekly US ethanol production fell to the second lowest level this year at 995k barrels per day.

As a reminder, the Russian Government announced quota of 1.5Mt for Sunflower oil and 700Kt for Soymeal, applicable from 15th April to 31st August 2022.