US wheat sales to Philippines top 2 million mt so far in 2020-21

New Delhi — US wheat export sales to the Philippines in the 2020-21 marketing season went past the 2 million mt mark, with the bookings seen 36.7% higher than what the country purchased at the same period last year, data from the US Department of Agriculture showed Oct. 8.

The Philippines' total commitments for US wheat have now hit 2.2 million mt in the week to Oct. 1, with 56% of that volume already shipped in, according to the data.

So far, the Philippines' commitments have been higher than Mexico's, which has been traditionally the largest buyer of US wheat.

The pace of US wheat sales to Mexico has been lagging in the 2020-21 marketing season, which started June 1. In the week to Oct. 1 during the current marketing year, the US has sold 1.7 million mt of wheat to Mexico, down 15.6% from the same period a year ago.

Overall US wheat export sales in the week to Oct. 1 rose 4.9% from the previous week to 530,621 mt, led by large bookings from the Philippines and Mexico.

Weekly US exports

US wheat exports in the week ended Oct. 1 hit 702,740 mt, the second highest level since the marketing season started, according to the data. Exports were driven by the large shipments headed to the Philippines in the latest week.

Exports are physical shipments, while export sales refer to contracted volumes of a commodity.

Total cumulative US wheat exports to global destinations have now reached 9.5 million mt since the new season started, up 6.3% from the year-ago levels, the USDA data showed.

With the marketing season in its 19th week, total commitments for US wheat account for 54.7% of the USDA's export estimates of 26.54 million mt in 2020-21. The estimates are expected to change in the agency's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, scheduled to be released Oct. 9.

Source: USDA