Angela Bowman, Staff Writer  |   February 2, 2012

According to the USDA's latest U.S. Export Sales report, corn exports of 669,600 MT were down 29 percent from the previous week and 11 percent from the 4-week average. The primary destinations were to Japan (184,800 MT), Mexico (143,400 MT), South Korea (89,700 MT, including late reporting of 57,700 MT), Venezuela (56,500 MT), Costa Rica (39,900 MT), and Canada (29,700 MT).

Corn net sales of 912,000 MT for the 2011/2012 marketing year resulted as increases for Mexico (442,200 MT, including 30,500 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 10,000 MT), Japan (306,500 MT, including 39,000 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 3,300 MT), Venezuela (84,000 MT), Cuba (52,500 MT), South Korea (30,300 MT, including 31,500 MT switched from unknown destinations and decreases of 5,600 MT), and Jamaica (14,900 MT), were partially offset by decreases for Nicaragua (23,000 MT), Guatemala (14,400 MT), El Salvador (11,000 MT), and Costa Rica (7,500 MT).  

Net sales of 63,000 MT for delivery in 2012/2013 marketing year were reported for China (50,000 MT) and Mexico (16,000 MT).  Decreases were reported for Japan (3,100 MT).

Corn futures closed higher on Wednesday as the market was supported by fund buying as the dollar index was solidly lower and equities were stronger. On Thursday futures opened 6 to 7 cents lower as the market turned lower overnight on profit-taking following recent gains and on technical selling after the March contract failed to push above $6.50.

REPORT	THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK	DIFFERENCE
Sales	912,008	958,136	-46,128

SALES	10 WEEKS	27 WEEKS	THIS YEAR
Average	576,548	730,110	737,877
High	958,136	3,616,287	958,136
Low	280,551	208,948	321,466

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