Brazil’s corn and soybean exports rise in January

According to government data, Brazil’s corn shipments reached 2.8m tons in the first three weeks of January, while soybean exports were 1.34m tons in the same period. Data from shipping agency Williams shows exporters have already booked shipments of another 740,500 tons of corn, scheduled to be transported by the end of January. Thus this month’s shipments will reach around 3.55m tons.

Williams data also shows the country will ship another 1.21m tons of soybeans through January 31. The total shipment of 2.5m tons of soy will be the highest movement ever recorded in the first month of a year, according to government data.

Corn exports will outpace that of soybean in January 2019. Corn suffered a severe crop failure in 2018 and was sold less in the international markets. Due to increased demands of soy from China, the priority to ship corn was also “pushed back” last year, according to Dutch Rabobank.

The following DataLiner plot shows Brazil’s corn and soybean shipments correlation over the last ten years, with trends from top destinations: 

Grain exports projection

Grain consultancy firm, AgRural has lowered its estimate of Brazil’s soybean harvest to 116.9m tons down from 121.4m tons in November due to worse than expected dry conditions in the southern soy belt of the country. Rabobank forecasts Brazil’s soybean export will reach between 70 and 71m tons this year, compared to around 84m tons in 2018. The organ also estimates Brazil will ship 30m tons of corn in 2019, against 23m tons recorded last year.

Grain shipment infrastructure

The Brazilian government is devising plans to reduce heavy reliance on road transport for getting grains to ports by building more roads and railways and involving current railway operators to invest in expansions as their concessions come up for renewal.

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