WASHINGTON — The US Department of Agriculture said China, in three recent transactions, the latest announced May 11, has purchased a total of 3,060,000 tonnes of US corn to be delivered in the 2021-22 marketing year, which begins Sept. 1, an indication that China likely will continue to import large volumes of US corn in the coming year.
China’s first purchase of US corn for delivery in 2021-22 was made May 7. The transaction involved 1,360,000 tonnes. The second purchase was logged May 10 at 1,020,000 tonnes, and the third purchase was made May 11 at 680,000 tonnes. All three transactions were announced via the USDA’ 24-hour export reporting service.
At the time, the USDA on May 10 reported a cancellation of 280,000 tonnes in corn purchases for delivery in 2020-21 by China. In recent weeks, there have been other corn sales cancellations by China for the current year, which wasn’t unexpected given the large amount of corn still scheduled for delivery before the end of 2020-21.
The USDA in its most recent Export Sales report said exports and undelivered sales of US corn to China for 2020-21 totaled 23,244,300 tonnes. Of the total, 11,380,300 tonnes already have been shipped to China while 11,864,000 tonnes have yet to be delivered.
