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Economist says lack of export sales data leaves traders without crucial info

An ag economist says the temporary suspension of the USDA’s Weekly Export Sales Report is leaving traders without crucial information.

University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says it will be mid-September before traders will have that information available to them. “We certainly do rely a lot on that weekly export data to give us some direction of not just livestock, but where all these Ag markets are going,” he says.  “We’re going to be without that.”

He tells Brownfield this isn’t the first time the ag sector has been without data.  “Don’t forget the government shut down for a period of time,” he says. “And we had no data.  And markets really struggled in that period   Yes, we’re missing weekly export sales, we need that information. I just hope we get that back online quickly and efficiently.”

Brown says there will likely be some apprehension from data users when the report resumes next week.  “We want to be really careful as soon as that first weekly report starts to come back,” he says. “You don’t want to get caught if you’re thinking about making any kind of selling or purchasing decisions in what could be somehow a surprise that gets filled in after that data is released.  Positively or negatively.”

The USDA’s Foreign Ag Service says reports will resume on September 15, 2022, and will be reverted back to its legacy system while the department works through the technical issues that caused the glitch.