March 11, 2010

Higher US soy exports seen on lower ending stocks

The US will be exporting 20 million more bushels of soy in the 2009-10 marketing year than previously expected, reducing the estimate for ending stocks, the USDA said on Wednesday (March 10).

"Soy exports are raised 20 million bushels to a record 1.42 billion reflecting the strong export pace to date," the USDA said. A month ago, the USDA predicted US soy exports at 1.4 billion bushels.

However, the USDA's 2009-10 soy ending stocks forecast has been lowered to 190 million bushels, 20 million less than was predicted a month ago.

The USDA also lowered its production estimate for last year's soy crop by two million bushels. US farmers are now expected to have harvested 3.359 billion bushels of soy, down slightly from the February estimate of 3.361 billion bushels.

The production estimate change resulted from new acreage surveys of farmers in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, the USDA said.