Jul 16, 2020
Brazil's Soybean Exports Continue at a Record Pace
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Brazil's soybean exports in 2020 continue at a torrid pace driven by the devalued Brazilian currency and strong demand from China. The Brazilian National Grain Exporters Association (Anec) increased their estimate of Brazil's July soybean exports this week to 8.92 million tons. This includes actual exports until July 11th and anticipated exports until the end of the month. Up until last week, Anec had been estimating July soybean exports at 8.07 million tons.
Anec also increased their estimate of soybean meal exports during July to 1.86 million tons, which is up from their prior estimate of 1.72 million tons last week. Anec also increased their estimate of Brazil's corn exports for July to 5.54 million tons, which is up from their estimate of 5.15 million tons last week.
If these estimates are confirmed, during the first seven months of 2020, Brazil will have exported 70.41 million tons of soybeans, 8.09 million tons of corn, and 10.22 million tons of soybeans meal.
Starting in March of this year, Brazil has been exporting record amounts of soybeans on a monthly basis in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping across Brazil. At the start of the pandemic, Brazilian port authorities implemented strict guidelines to protect the health of the port workers and the result has been only very minor disruptions in loading activities due to health concerns. In fact, most delays at Brazilian ports have been weather related and not related to health concerns or labor unrest.
Anec, along with numerous grain companies, grain exporters, and environmental groups has been involved for over a decade with the Soybean Moratorium in Brazil that has prohibited the purchase of soybeans grown on land in the Amazon Region that has been illegally deforested after 2008, which is the starting point for Brazil's Forestry Code regulations. It is all part of their commitment to sustainable soybean production and the reduction of deforestation in the Amazon Region of Brazil.
In fact, grain companies such as Cargill, have implemented supply chain tracking measures in an effort to verify that all the grain they purchase is from land that was not cleared illegally.
According to the latest assessment from the Soybean Moratorium, only 1.5% of the total land deforested in the Amazon Region since 2008 has been utilized for the production of soybeans. The vast majority of land deforested in the Amazon Region has been due to subsistence farming and cattle ranching.