FILE PHOTO: A load of soybeans is dumped into an elevator hopper during harvest season at Deerfield AG Services grain elevator facility in Massillon, Ohio, U.S., October 7, 2021.REUTERS/Dane Rhys/File Photo

(Adds dropped word in analyst quote, paragraph 6)

By Karl Plume

CHICAGO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture left its U.S. soybean export forecast unchanged in a monthly report on Tuesday as sales resumed to China, which for months shunned purchases because of its trade war with Washington.

The USDA pegged soybean exports in the 2025/26 season that ends on August 31 at a 13-year low of 1.635 billion bushels, down 13% from the prior year. Ending stocks were unchanged from a month earlier at 290 million bushels.

The world's biggest soy importer resumed buying U.S. soy after a meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in late October, where the White House said China agreed to buy 12 million metric tons from the current crop. Some of the nearly 2.9 million metric tons in confirmed sales to date have already started to ship.

The purchases, however, were well below levels that China has imported from the U.S. in recent years, and that loss of demand has pressured soybean prices and cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales.

FURTHER CUTS TO THE OUTLOOK ARE POSSIBLE

Total soybean sales to all destinations through early November were down nearly 40% from the same period a year earlier, according to USDA data, suggesting further cuts to the outlook are likely.

"Maybe the USDA is just leaving the door open for China to buy more or for the rest of world to somehow make up the difference," said Ted Seifried, chief strategist at Zaner Group.

The White House on Monday made public a $12 billion aid package for American farmers hurt by its trade policies.

Corn exports have been robust, and the USDA on Tuesday raised its U.S. corn export forecast as sales of the grain to global buyers have been stronger than anticipated.

U.S. corn exports were seen at a record 3.200 billion bushels, up from 3.075 billion a month earlier, while end-of-season supplies were estimated at 2.029 billion bushels, down from the USDA's prior-month forecast of 2.154 billion.

Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures extended declines after the USDA report, trading at the lowest since October 30, while corn futures firmed. [GRA/]

(Reporting by Karl Plume, additional reporting by Heather Schlitz. Editing by Mark Potter and Barbara Lewis)