USDA has revised its projections of corn and soybean exports.  USDA’s projections for the marketing year are coming into clearer focus as we are about half-way through the marketing year.  University of Illinois Economist Darrel Good makes the projection that total exports should be about 30 million bushels better than a year ago.

For corn, in order to reach the USDA projection of 2 billion bushels for the year, the US needs to ship about 42 million bushels per week through the end of August.  To date exports have averaged only about 33 million per week, based on actual 1^st quarter numbers. 

It’s a very different story for soybeans where Good projects that current soybean exports will exceed expectations by about 235 million bushels over a year ago, when calculated similarly to corn.  It sounds like good news for the soybean market, but we’ve reached the seasonal decline in soybean sales with the South American crop coming onto the market.