By Jennifer Whitlock
Field Editor

China continues to exhibit an almost insatiable demand for U.S. grain sorghum, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The agency predicts sorghum exports will reach a new record this year.

At the end of February, U.S. grain sorghum outstanding sales for delivery by August were at 2.8 million tons, the second-largest volume in history.

Nearly three-quarters of those sales are expected to head to China, according to USDA. While the remainder of those sales are mostly to “unknown destinations,” they could also go to China. The “unknown destinations” is a catchall designation for when a country hasn’t officially been identified at the time an export sales report is filed.

Japan and Mexico, which have been traditionally strong markets, have seen what FAS called “insignificant” sorghum sales this marketing year. However, in the March World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), the agency noted Mexico will likely need to replant about 20 to 40 percent of the winter sorghum crop due to February’s freezing weather.

But smaller export sales to these and other destinations doesn’t mean other countries have stopped buying grain sorghum.

In an interview with AgWeb, National Sorghum Producers (NSP) CEO Tim Lust said export demand was strong among several countries.

“Whether that’s some food aid demand going into several of our African countries that are struggling or whether that is some specialty uses going into Japan and a few other countries, there’s a really strong pull from a number of different directions from the international market,” he said.

And strong demand equals stronger prices.

“Following continued record bids, the average farm price received was upwardly revised to $5.00 per bushel for sorghum. This remains the highest projected price at this time of year in nearly a decade,” NSP wrote in a recent market analysis. “Basis remains high and steady in the interior, and on the Gulf, sorghum is trading at 137 percent of corn.”

If all recent export sales commitments were shipped, NSP said it would equal 82 percent of USDA’s grain sorghum export forecast for the entire 2020-2021 marketing year, which runs from Sept. 1, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2021.