Documentation

• Scope
• Marketing Years
• Sources
• Updates
• Conversion Factors
• Supply and Disappearance Data
• Price Data

Scope

This database contains statistics on seven oilseeds (soybeans, sunflowerseed, canola, flaxseed, safflowerseed, peanuts, and cottonseed), seven oilseed meals (soybean meal, sunflowerseed meal, canola meal, linseed meal, safflowerseed meal, peanut meal, and cottonseed meal) and twelve vegetable oils (soybean oil, sunflowerseed oil, canola oil, linseed oil, safflowerseed oil, peanut oil, cottonseed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, and corn oil). This includes data published in the monthly Oil Crops Outlook reports and previous editions of the annual Oil Crops Yearbook. However, the database generally covers a longer time period.

Marketing Years

Annual and quarterly supply-use statistics are on a marketing-year basis. Marketing years span calendar years and are often written to include both calendar years. For example, 1998/99 refers to the marketing year beginning September 1, 1998 and ending August 31, 1999. Marketing years differ by commodity and are as follows:

• Soybeans begin September 1 and are comprised of four quarters (September-November, December-February, March-May, and June-August). Prior to 1986, the marketing year began October 1.
• Sunflowerseed begins September 1.
• Sunflowerseed begins September 1
• Canola begins June 1.
• Flaxseed begins June 1.
• Peanuts begin August 1.
• All oilseed meals and vegetable oils begin October 1.
• Domestic consumption of fats and oils in food products are on a calendar-year basis.
• Foreign oilseeds, oilseed meals, and vegetable oils are an aggregation on the basis of local (producing-country) marketing years, except adjusted imports, which USDA adjusts on an October/September year in the Production, Supply, and Distribution (PS&D) database. Putting all countries on the same 12-month year facilitates analysis of competition and market share, as countries in the Southern Hemisphere have a local marketing year that is quite different from the international trade year.

Sources

Most of the data are from USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, World Agricultural Outlook Board, Agricultural Marketing Service, Farm Service Agency, Foreign Agricultural Service; the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census; and the U.S. Department of Labor. Some production data for oilseed meals, vegetable oils, and animal fats are calculated by ERS. The National Sunflower Association is the current source for U.S. sunflowerseed crush data. Milling and Baking News is the source for several vegetable oils prices.

Updates

Yearbook data are updated annually in March.

Conversion Factors

Several units of measure are used in this database. Here are a few useful conversion factors:

• Soybean, 1 bushel = 60 pounds
• Flaxseed, 1 bushel = 56 pounds
• 1 metric ton = 2,204.622 pounds
• 1 U.S. (short) ton = 2,000 pounds
• 1 hectare = 2.4710 acres

Supply and Disappearance Data

Estimating the supply and disappearance of U.S. oilseeds, oilseed meals, and vegetable oils is a joint effort of several agencies of USDA's Oilseeds Interagency Commodity Estimates Committee (ICEC). These estimates are published monthly in World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), and changes in the estimates from month-to-month are explained in ERS' monthly Oil Crops Outlook. For more information, see USDA Outlook Process.

 Supply and Use:

• U.S. supply and use data are from USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE).
• Soybean meal domestic disappearance includes use in edible soy products and shipments to U.S. territories.
• Foreign (world less U.S.) supply and use data are from USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). Country-level data are available from FAS's Production, Supply, and Distribution (PS&D) Database.

Imports and Exports:

• Data are reported for both U.S. and world trade.
• U.S. trade data are calculated from U.S. Census Bureau data on a monthly basis, and then accumulated to total annual data.
• World trade data come from USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service Production, Supply, and Distribution (PS&D) Database.
• On the Custom Queries page, under Data Attributes, there are three different types of trade data. Each has a different source and is labeled as follows:
• • Imports/Exports, from U.S. to specified destination. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Imports/Exports, marketing year. Source: USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE).
  • Imports/Exports, trade year. Source: PS&D database.

Price Data

Here are important details about the items in the database, such as which data are preliminary or changes to data series over time.

Farm Prices:

• Average prices received by farmers for soybeans, sunflowerseed, canola, peanuts, flaxseed, and safflowerseed do not include an allowance for loans outstanding and government purchases.
• The most recent month is preliminary.
• Annual season-average price for soybeans, sunflowerseed, canola, peanuts, flaxseed, and safflowerseed is based on monthly prices weighted by monthly marketings. These prices are from USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

• Annual season-average soybean price for the current marketing year is published in USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) as a projected price range and reported in the database as a projected high and low value of the range, as well as a midpoint estimate.

Market Prices for Oilseed Meal and Vegetable Oil:

The monthly, cash-bid prices for various oilseed meals and vegetable at principal U.S. markets are from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service. Sosland Publishing Company's Milling and Baking News is also a source for several vegetable oils prices.

Last updated: Thursday, July 05, 2012

For more information contact: Mark Ash