China’s Oct soybean imports from Brazil surge 71% from a year ago

China’s imports of Brazilian soybeans rose by 71% in October compared to the same month in 2022, driven by lower prices and a bumper crop in Brazil, according to data released on Monday (20).

According to the General Administration of Customs, China imported 4.81 million tonnes of the oilseed from Brazil last month.

The record production of Brazilian soybeans in the last harvest is expected to drive the course of China’s imports in the last three months of 2023, a period typically dominated by the newly harvested crop in the United States, said traders and analysts in early November. Shipments from the U.S. dropped from 772,700 tonnes last year to only 228,200 tonnes this year.

Chinese purchases from American producers have been well below normal this year, but in recent weeks, China, the world’s largest soybean importer, has acquired large shipments from the U.S.

This buying spree coincides with the erratic weather that hampered the start of the soybean planting season in Brazil, the world’s largest producer.

The chart below, developed with Datamar data, shows Brazil’s soybean exports to China between 2019 and Aug 2023. The data is from DataLiner.

Soy exports to China | Jan 2019 – Aug 2023 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

China’s total imports last month reached 5.16 million tonnes. In the first ten months of 2023, the nation imported 59.68 million tonnes of soybeans from Brazil, a growth of 21% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, U.S. imports fell by 1.8% to 18.78 million tonnes.

Chinese imports of Brazilian corn reached 1.8 million tonnes in October, almost the entirety of the 2.04 million tonnes that arrived in the nation last month.

Sources: Forbes

To read the original text in Portuguese, please visit: https://forbes.com.br/forbesagro/2023/11/importacoes-de-soja-brasileira-pela-china-sobem-71-em-outubro/

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