The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has raised its forecast for 2025/26 soyabean meal imports into the European Union (EU) by 1M tonnes to total 19.5M tonnes, moving closer to the previous year’s decade high level of 20.6M tonnes.
In its February ‘Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade’ report, the USDA also reported soyabean meal imports for the first two months of the marketing year (October-September) totalled 3.9M tonnes, keeping pace with last year.
According to data reported by major soyabean meal suppliers – including Brazil, Argentina, India and Ukraine – EU imports through to February were expected to continue at last year’s pace.
The EU’s large volume of soyabean meal imports in 2024/25 was on top of strong soyabean imports, enabling the highest soyabean meal consumption since 2008/09.
Increased soyabean meal usage rose partly to offset reduced availability of rapeseed and sunflowerseed meals as well as feed wheat, another alternative protein source, due to below average production of those crops in 2024/25.
Low global soyabean meal prices made soyabean meal an attractive alternative for feed producers, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) report.
EU import unit values (CIF) averaged below US$400/tonne for the first time since 2019/20, declining from a peak of US$550/tonne in 2022/23.
In 2025/26, soybean meal consumption was expected to remain strong, although its share with respect to other oilseed meals had reduced from the previous year.
Large EU rapeseed and wheat crops were expected to enable a recovery of their feed usage.
However, global soyabean meal prices remained low, which was expected to continue through 2025/26 as record harvests in South America enabled further crushing and soyabean meal exports.
Price competitiveness driven by record global soyabean meal production would have a major positive influence on EU imports of soyabean meal in the remaining months of the marketing year, the USDA said.
