• Brussels has issued weekly wheat export certificates totalling 491,794 mt, which brings the season total to 3.289 million mt. This is 801,015 mt (32.19%) ahead of last year. Barley exports for the week reached 49,810 mt, which brings the season total to 881,149 mt, which is 1.08 million (55.07)% behind last year.

• The USDA has today released its weekly export figures as detailed below:

Wheat: 607,600 mt, which is above estimates of 350,000-550,000 mt.
Corn: 1,610,500 mt, which is above estimates of 1,000,000-1,500,000 mt.
Soybeans: 3,100,200 mt, which is above estimates of 2,100,000-2,900,000 mt.
Soybean Meal: 98,400 mt, which is within estimates of 90,000-450,000 mt.
Soybean Oil: 12,500 mt, which is within estimates of 10,000-35,000 mt.

• Chicago soybeans have caught a bid on the back of significant export volume data released today as well as fresh daily sales announcements, whilst the grains are languishing on spreads and long profit taking ahead of tomorrow’s August report. Grains volume is reported to be high and the current thinking is that farmer selling is responsible as growers clear corn stocks ahead of the report, US farmers were believed to be sitting on large corn volumes and looking for buyers.

• Stratégie Grains’ latest 2016 EU soft wheat crop estimate is once again lower month on month at 137.9 million mt, which is 7.7 million mt behind last month and 9% down year on year. Their corn estimate is also reduced to 60.6 million mt, a full 1.1 million down month on month and 6% behind last year. The downgrade in wheat output is on account of French woes, added to which German prospects are also reduced. On a slightly better note UK output was predicted to be 14.8 million mt a mere 200,000 mt behind last month’s estimate, and early harvest quality is looking better than earlier thought.