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How do export prices for corn, soybeans, and wheat compare?

June 05, 2019

Prices for the major U.S. export crops—corn, soybeans, and wheat—trended closely to one another over the past 4 years. From December 2014 to December 2018, the export price index for each crop fell. Prices for corn exports fell modestly, decreasing 6.7 percent during the period. Export prices decreased more for soybeans (16.1 percent) and wheat (17.5 percent).

Agricultural export price indexes, December 2014–18
Month Export corn Export soybeans Export wheat

Dec 2014

100.0 100.0 100.0

Jan 2015

101.1 100.7 93.3

Feb 2015

97.8 95.1 86.2

Mar 2015

98.9 97.6 84.6

Apr 2015

98.0 96.0 89.6

May 2015

94.8 96.2 77.2

Jun 2015

92.7 92.4 80.7

Jul 2015

105.0 100.9 86.4

Aug 2015

93.1 96.0 71.8

Sep 2015

91.1 87.7 70.5

Oct 2015

97.2 86.9 77.5

Nov 2015

96.3 85.4 76.3

Dec 2015

92.3 86.5 72.6

Jan 2016

89.0 84.1 70.2

Feb 2016

93.4 85.6 71.3

Mar 2016

88.5 82.0 68.7

Apr 2016

88.7 85.7 70.4

May 2016

95.2 95.8 70.0

Jun 2016

100.9 103.9 70.9

Jul 2016

91.4 107.7 64.1

Aug 2016

88.3 97.1 63.2

Sep 2016

84.5 95.1 61.6

Oct 2016

86.7 92.1 64.0

Nov 2016

88.0 92.7 65.1

Dec 2016

85.9 96.8 64.6

Jan 2017

89.7 94.6 66.3

Feb 2017

92.0 96.5 68.1

Mar 2017

94.3 96.3 70.3

Apr 2017

89.1 87.5 66.6

May 2017

89.3 89.9 68.5

Jun 2017

89.9 86.5 69.1

Jul 2017

90.6 91.3 85.1

Aug 2017

85.7 91.5 77.8

Sep 2017

82.2 90.8 72.5

Oct 2017

84.1 90.6 73.5

Nov 2017

85.0 90.7 74.0

Dec 2017

85.5 93.1 73.9

Jan 2018

87.2 90.2 74.7

Feb 2018

93.9 92.4 75.8

Mar 2018

97.1 100.0 81.9

Apr 2018

97.3 97.1 77.5

May 2018

101.7 98.9 85.3

Jun 2018

98.3 96.3 83.9

Jul 2018

89.3 82.2 77.5

Aug 2018

92.4 85.1 85.0

Sep 2018

90.4 77.7 79.4

Oct 2018

89.7 78.1 81.5

Nov 2018

91.6 80.7 81.8

Dec 2018

93.3 83.9 82.5

At certain times, export prices for the three crops shared even closer trends. From July to September 2015, corn export prices fell 13.3 percent, soybeans export prices fell 13.1 percent, and wheat export prices fell 18.5 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2018, export prices rose 3.2 percent for corn, 8.0 percent for soybeans, and 3.9 percent for wheat. Corn, soybean, and wheat prices trend together because they share supply and demand influences. These include weather effects, substitutability, biofuels demand, the value of the U.S. dollar, and the use of crude oil as an input to production.

These data are from the International Price program. To learn more, see "The relationship between crude oil prices and export prices of major agricultural commodities." We also have more charts about U.S. import and export prices. Import and export price changes may be revised in each of the 3 months after original publication.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, How do export prices for corn, soybeans, and wheat compare? at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/how-do-export-prices-for-corn-soybeans-and-wheat-compare.htm (visited November 14, 2024).

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