- According to USDA data, the United States sold a record 5.848 million tons of corn to China last week. This level is a historic achievement for the United States.

- On Friday, commodity funds in Chicago were net buyers of 35,000 corn contracts, 13,000 wheat contracts and 13,500 soybean contracts.

- The Russian government plans to introduce a floating export tax on wheat in 2021/22. The tax will amount to 70% of the difference between the current market price and the average price of wheat for a three-year period (current average price of 200 USD/ton).

- In Jan 2021, 152,600 tons of sunseed oil were exported from Russian ports, which is 26% less than in Jan 2020. The largest importers of sunseed oil from Russia were Turkey with 65,500 tons, Iran with 40,100 tons and China with 16,000 tons.

- In January, 1,357 million tons of grain were exported from the Russian port of Novorossiysk, which is 16.4% less than the previous month and 41.4% more than in January 2020. Wheat exports reached a monthly record of 1.276 million tons (-11.8% and + 47.5%). Exports of barley reached 81,500 tons (-51.4% and +16.5%).

- SovEcon has raised its forecast for Russian wheat exports in 2020/21 by 1.6 million tons to a total of 37.9 million tons. The adjustment is due to strong exports in recent weeks and the authorities' intention to keep the export taxes in 2021/22.

- The European Commission has increased its estimate for wheat exports from the EU-27 for 2020/21 by 2 million tons to a total of 26 million tons, which is 29% less than the previous year. The wheat production is projected at 116.4 million tons (+0.3 and 131), domestic consumption is expected to go up to 93 million tons (+0.3 and -4%) and ending stocks are predicted at 9.9 million tons (+0.6 and +2%). The corn production is projected at 62.6 million tons (+0.1 and -21%), corn imports-18.5 million tons (-0.5 and 18) and domestic consumption of 82.8 million tons (+0.5 and -2%).

- According to the Canadian Grain Commission, in the week of Jan 18-24, the country increased exports of:

• wheat- 611,500 tons (281,100 tons a week earlier)
• durum- 189,400 tons (38,600)
• barley- 43,400 tons (40,900)

Canola exports decreased to 115,500 tons (381,000)

- According to Oil World forecast, the sunseed production in Argentina will reach 2.7 - 2.8 million tons in 2020/21 compared to 3.05 million tons in 2019/20, which will be the lowest level for the last five years.

- The Government of India has significantly reduced the import tax on crude palm oil from 27.5% to 15% and from 35% to 15% on soyoil and sunseed oil.

- The state company of Egypt, GASC, has announced a tender for the purchase of 40,000 tons of vegetable oils with delivery in April, incl. 30,000 tons of soyoil and 10,000 tons of sunseed oil.