US net export sales of old and new crop corn totaled 1.117 million mt in the week ended September 1, up 29.71% from 861,596 mt the previous week, Department of Agriculture data showed Friday.
Net export corn sales for the current marketing year -- the old crop -- dropped 88.63% in the week to 24,339 mt, while net export corn sales for the new marketing year -- the new crop -- rose 68.85% to 1.093 million mt, the USDA said in its weekly export report.
Market expectations were for USDA weekly export sales to be 800,000-1.3 million mt, a market participant said.
In addition, the data was complicated because the "USDA rolls unshipped old crop business over to the new crop slot," the source said. The US corn marketing year is from September 1 to August 31, so this weekly report was the last for the 2015-2016 marketing year, and also the first for the 2016-2017 marketing year.
The top buyers for the 2015-16 marketing year were Mexico (12.829 million mt), Japan (11.005 million mt), Colombia (4.822 million mt) and South Korea (3.416 million mt).
The top new crop buyers in the most recent week were Mexico (467,807 mt), Japan (91,260 mt) and Colombia (64,384 mt).
Net sales are considered a more appropriate indicator of the strength of the corn market than physical exports because they reflect new sales.
Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production in the US and is the main competitor for dried distillers grains.
