The May 2021 Position Report was released Tuesday, June 10th. This report brings another round of shipping records and continues to chip away at the industry carryout estimates.
The year-to-date crop receipts are now 3,101,603,042 pounds, which is 22.28% ahead of this time last year.
Total shipments for the month were 219.41 million pounds, this is an increase of 42.6% when compared to last year’s 153.89 million pounds. This is the new shipment record for May and the largest year to year increase of the season. Export shipments were 149.51 million pounds, which is up 54.6% from last year. Domestic shipments rebounded this month and set a new record at 69.89 million pounds, up 22.3% from last May. The push to get 2020 crop out the door continues as handlers try to get carryout as low as possible before 2021 deliveries begin. The strong shipments continue to chip away at the carryout estimate, it looks like 2020 carryout will now be somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 million pounds.
New sales for the month were 103 million pounds, this is down slightly when compared to the 111 million pounds sold in May of 2020. The crop is now 87.1% sold, that puts us a little behind last season sold percentage of 87.7%.
The strength of this report increased new crop price by roughly $0.05 per pound and a few cents for current crop. As harvest approaches, buyers have shifted their focus to new crop purchases, while 2020 crop seems to be becoming an afterthought. Growers have shown very little interest in new crop sales as many believe the 3.2-billion-pound estimate is inflated and prices will need to continue to rise to cover operating costs. Buyers, on the other hand, completely agree with the estimate and feel the price should come down. It looks like the standoff will continue until the NASS objective estimate comes out on July 12th.
