11/21/25 Afternoon CommStock Report – Regional Market Forces as Extreme as Ever

Market disparities always exist across the country based on crop production, storage capacity, and the strength of local demand, but this year has seemingly stretched the regional differences to a more extreme degree. Basis, which is a function of the regional supply and demand balance, currently shows cash grain prices starkly firmer in the East versus weaker the West. Watch for signs that the basis gap is narrowing because the crop has been put away in the Western Corn Belt as better export demand develops from shippers in the Pacific Northwest.   A bumper crop will pad stocks in the Western Corn Belt for a long time to come, but returning Chinese soybean demand out of the Pacific Northwest ports would have to compete with a corn export program that is running hotter than ever. PNW export inspections of corn during the last reporting week totaled over 1 million metric tons versus 191,000 mt a year ago. Soybean shipments from the PNW were only 40,000 mt for the week compared to 584,000 mt at this point last year.   Soybean processors in the West have faced considerably less competition from the export market so far this season and the only…