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China emerges as top buyer of US wheat in latest week; exports hit 577,000 mt

A week after returning to the US wheat markets, Chinese buyers continue to seek US wheat, with the latest week’s export sales to China emerging as the second-largest of the current season, indicating buyers remain interested amid the country’s efforts to ramp up its purchases of US agricultural products.

In the week to Aug. 27, China booked 250,800 mt of US wheat, the second-largest volume purchased in the current marketing season that started June 1, data from the US Department of Agriculture showed Sept. 3. Sales to China were also the largest for the week, followed by the Philippines.

The latest purchase took China’s total commitments for US wheat to 1.47 million mt in 2020-21, inching to a five-year high, according to an analysis of US Department of Agriculture data.

So far, China’s commitments remain higher than those of the two largest traditional buyers of US wheat — Mexico and Japan.

This comes as China has been actively buying US agricultural goods in recent weeks, including corn, soybeans, sorghum and pork, largely as part of its commitments made under the Phase 1 deal.
US wheat sales fall

Overall, US net export sales of wheat in the week ended Aug. 27 fell 23.4% from the previous week, totaling 585,427 mt, USDA data showed.

However, sales remain 4% above the previous-week average, signaling demand for US wheat markets stayed consistently active.

Total physical wheat exports plunged from the prior week ended Aug. 20, with the largest shipments destined for Nigeria.

Wheat exports in the week ended Aug. 27 totaled 483,387 mt, down 25.2% from the previous week. This has taken cumulative wheat exports to 6.5 million mt since the new season started, USDA data showed.

With the marketing season in its 14th week, total commitments for US wheat account for 47% of the USDA’s export estimates of 26.54 million mt in 2020-21.

Source: Platts

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