EU imports of US soyabeans have doubled in the first half of 2018/19 compared to the previous marketing year, according to a recent report by Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP).
In the first half of the 2018/19 marketing year, the EU imported 6.95M tonnes of soyabeans, an increase of 12% from the previous year. The USA remained the EU’s main supplier with volumes of US imports increasing to 5.2M tonnes this season from only 2.3M tonnes in the previous year, German market researcher, Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH (AMI) said in the UFOP report.
According to UFOP, US soyabean imports have increased so rapidly because of the ongoing trade war between the USA and China, which led to China imposing 25% tariffs on several US imports, including soyabeans, in response to the USA imposing the same tariff on more than 800 Chinese products.
The USA had to find new buyers for its soyabeans, benefitting the EU.
“The EU has always been dependent on third countries to supplement its soyabean demand because EU demand exceeds EU production by around 30%,” UFOP said.
Additionally, the statistics showed that the EU’s second largest soyabean source, Brazil, has had rapidly decreasing exports over time. The EU imported 1.9M tonnes of soyabeans from Brazil in 2016/17, 1.8M tonnes in 2017/18 and 1.3M tonnes from July to December 2018/19, UFOP said.
