Old crop prices had a nice rally this week adding 50 cents to $1.25 per hundredweight at the North Dakota crush plants. High oleic old crop prices in the High Plains were unchanged. 2023 new crop prices were down 25 cents to unchanged at the crush plants. The crop insurance price discovery process continues for 2023 crop insurance price elections. Oil type sunflowers are at $30.50, and confections are $32.60 per hundredweight. The prices are down 10 cents from a week ago. To follow sunflower price election trends, watch the 2023 CBoT December soyoil contract through Feb. 28. Final price elections will be announced in early March. The U.S. corn and soybean ending stocks are not tightening as much as expected, according to the latest USDA Supply & Demand and WASDE Reports. For soybeans, the U.S. ending stocks were 225 million bushels, exceeding both the trade’s expectation of 211 million bushels and USDA’s January estimate of 210 million bushels. The February reports focused largely on international production this month, as domestic supply estimates were largely settled in the January report. USDA pegged the 2022-2023 Brazil soybean output at a record 153.0 million metric tons unchanged from the January outlook. For Argentina soybean output was estimated at 41.0 million metric tons versus the USDA’s January estimate of 45.5 million metric tons. With the release of the latest USDA production forecasts, traders will focus on the U.S. export sales pace, South American weather, yield reports, and harvest progress.
