Brazil’s June’s soybean exports stagnated in the week ended June 19, while imports surged as farmers’ stock hoarding stoked tight supply concerns, sources told S&P Global Platts.

Brazil — the world’s top soy supplier — exported 7.56 million mt of soybeans in the first three weeks of June, compared with 9.36 million mt in the same period last year, according to the Secretariat of Foreign Trade’s report released June 21. The country’s soybean imports have surged to 99,000 mt so far in June, compared with 53,000 mt in June last year, the data showed.

Daily export soybean shipments have averaged 0.58 million mt in June so far, compared with 0.61 million mt in the same period last year, the report said.

Soybean farmers in Brazil have resorted to stock hoarding amid falling prices, market analysts said. The average domestic prices were seen at Real 160/60 kg ($31.9/60 kg) as of June 11, down Real 3/60 kg on the month.

In addition, the supply chain has been adversely impacted as the coronavirus pandemic grips the country.

The pandemic death toll in the South American country nation has crossed 500,000. As a result, the operations across the road transport and port operations have slackened, sources said.

According to Associação Nacional dos Exportadores de Cereais, or Anec, Brazil is likely to export 11.4 million mt of soybeans in June, down 10% on the year.

With tight domestic supply situation, local crushers have started importing more soybeans compared with previous years.

Farmers are waiting for the prices to rise again amid the dry weather concerns in the US — Brazil’s top soybeans export competitor, analysts said. The crop ratings in North America have fallen sharply to 60% good-excellent, down 10 percentage points on the week as the Midwest awaits substantial rainfall to improve an extremely dry soil condition.

Typically, the Brazilian soybean farmers cue their sales to the futures prices on the Chicago Board of Trade, or CBOT.

CBOT soybean July futures price staged a remarkable recovery of close to 90 cents on previous close and was trading at $14.1362/bu 0355 GMT June 22.

Brazil is expected to produce a record 137 million mt of soybeans in the 2020-21 marketing year (February-January) and export an all-time high volume of 86 million mt, according to the latest market estimates.
Source: Platts