Washington, DC
June 16, 2003

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service will collect weekly export sales data for wheat, feed grains and oilseed products electronically beginning the week ending June 26, 2003.

Under the electronic reporting system, wheat, feed grain and oilseed product exporters will be able to access a secure data entry Web site with a user identification and password. The system has been operating successfully for other commodities since September 2002. With this addition, the export electronic reporting for all commodities is now possible.

Each week, FAS publishes export sales data for certain grains, soybeans and products, wheat products, rice, flaxseed, linseed oil, cotton and cottonseed products, sunflower seed oil, beef, and cattle hides and skins. The data is used to analyze foreign market conditions and consumer demand. The Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 mandates export sales reporting.

The weekly U.S. Export Sales report is available on the FAS Web site at http://www.fas.usda.gov/export-sales/esrd1.html.

Reports are normally released every Thursday.

For more information on export sales reporting, contact the FAS Export Sales Reporting staff
at +1 202-720-9209.