WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. Agriculture Department will need two weeks to bring its export sales reports up to date after missing four of the weekly reports during the U.S. government shutdown, officials said on Friday.
USDA said it would begin the process on Friday and complete it on Oct. 31 with a report covering three weeks of activity, from Oct. 4-24. The report routinely is issued on Thursday of each week and covers sales through Thursday of the preceding week.
The weekly tally of sales, showing commodity, tonnage and destinations, is an important indicator of activity for the world’s largest agricultural exporter.
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USDA said it would release on Friday afternoon the report for sales during the week ending Sept. 26. USDA was assembling that report when the shutdown began on Oct. 1.
On Oct. 24, it will release the report for the week ending Oct. 3, which covers the Oct. 1 turnover of marketing years for soybean meal, soybean oil, sunflower seed oil, cottonseed meal and cottonseed oil. The report will carry the final 2012-13 marketing year data for those commodities.
A week later, on Oct. 31, USDA will issue a report covering all sales reported from Oct. 4-24.
Ordinarily, it takes a week to compile each report, between allowing time for exporters to notify USDA of sales and to double-check details, said an official.
Under a 1973 law, exporters are required to report sales of grains, oilseeds, cotton, hides, beef and pork. Congress enacted the requirement following huge U.S. wheat purchases by the Soviet Union in 1972 that drove up food prices in America.
Exporters also are required to report large sales, such as 100,000 tonnes of corn or soybeans, within a day of the transaction for public announcement. The daily reporting network did not operate during the shutdown and opened again on Thursday to register new sales.
USDA said it would highlight in the weekly Export Sales report any large sales that ordinarily would have been subject to the daily reporting system.
