US soy export sales strong despite decline in China

US soy export sales for the current marketing year were near the high end of trade expectations last week despite a decline in old-crop sales to China, the world's top soy importer, analysts said.

The US Agriculture Department (USDA) said soy export sales for the current marketing year totalled 599,800 tonnes in the week ended March 26, up 40 percent from the previous week, while new marketing year sales totalled 581,100 tonnes.

China accounted for just 10 percent of the current marketing year sales after accounting for 50 percent or more of the weekly total for much of the past few months.

China bought 57,800 tonnes old-crop soy, Mexico bought 131,100 tonnes, and Japan bought 116,200 tonnes.

China contributed the majority of the larger-than-expected new marketing year soy sales, with 412,000 tonnes last week.

Analyst Mario Balletto said the old crop sales were better than expected without needing China, which was quite broad-based in terms of buyers.

Balletto added that next week's soy export sales to China were expected to rebound following news that the country was buying more US soy this week.

Analysts said US soy export sales are benefiting in the near term from a lack of confidence that Argentina can source enough soy amid an ongoing debate between farm groups and the government over soy export taxes.