August 29, 2022

USDA retracted weekly commodities export data after technical mishap

The US Agriculture Department (USDA) withdrew its weekly commodities export data following a technical mishap that left traders scrambling and created uncertainty in the futures markets, Reuters reported.

The government stated in a statement that "challenges that affected the physical dissemination of the export sales data as well as data quality" had been encountered with the new system used to publish the weekly export sales report.

The retraction came after the day's commodity markets had closed, and several hours after the initial release that traders had immediately questioned.

The week-delayed export sales report, which highlights recent demand for crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat at a time of limited global supplies, is an important indicator for traders, input suppliers, and farmers. It determines the amount of commodities sold by the US to foreign customers like China and Mexico.

The data was scheduled to be made available on the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) website of the USDA at 8:30 am EDT (12:30 GMT). The report for the week ending August 18, however, was not accessible online on Thursday morning. Instead, there were several broken links and a message announcing the agency's new "Export Sales Reporting Maintenance System."

For instance, the USDA reported that net upland cotton sales totalled 1.9 million bales, up from 49,800 bales the previous week, and that sales of soybeans from the upcoming harvest were nearly four times larger than the highest pre-report analyst estimate.

The USDA said that there could be some anomalies in the data related to the transition to the new system before sending the report via email.

Some analysts expressed regret for providing clients with inaccurate data.

-      Reuters