Brazil was expected to export at least 200,000 tonnes of soyabeans to the USA between the last weeks of May and the beginning of June, according to line-up data analysed by AgriCensus.
Although the South American country typically ships some soyabean volumes to the USA, particularly during the northern hemisphere’s summer months, this bilateral trade was set to increase this year due to a bumper Brazilian soyabean crop and competitive pricing, the 5 June report said.
According to line-up data from shipping agency Williams, two vessels chartered by chicken producer Perdue left the northern river port of Itacoatiara on 21 and 25 May, each carrying around 30,000 tonnes of soyabeans to the USA.
The data also showed that three other vessels, two chartered by Perdue and one by global agribusiness giant ADM, were scheduled to set sail to the USA in the first week of June from the northern ports of Santarem and Barcarena with a joint cargo of around 120,000 tonnes of soyabeans, the report said.
“Imports are a small but important element of our supply chain,” Scott Fredericksen, president of Perdue AgriBusiness, a division of Perdue Farms, was quoted as saying in a Reuters report on 31 May.
“As recent soyabean crushing rates in the USA are at a record high, we look to several countries, primarily in South America, to fill the gap in what’s grown domestically.”
In its line-up data, shipping company Cargonave also reported the same five soyabean vessels bound to the USA and noted a sixth vessel – chartered by Viterra – leaving Barcarena on 23 May carrying just under 30,000 tonnes of soyabeans to the USA, AgriCensus wrote.
If all cargoes and volumes were confirmed, this would bring total Brazilian soyabean exports to the USA between the last weeks of May and the beginning of June to more than 200,000 tonnes, according to Brazil’s customs data. This would be in addition to 46,153 tonnes shipped to the USA between January-April.
This would bring this year’s soyabean trade between the two countries as the largest since 2014, when Brazil exported a record annual volume of soyabeans to the USA at just over 1M tonnes, the report said.
Brazil is forecast to harvest a record crop of more than 154M tonnes of soyabeans this season, according to the Reuters report.
