SAO PAULO, June 21 (Reuters) – Argentina became the
second main destination for Brazilian soybeans in the first five
months of 2023, as it had to boost imports in response to a
historic drought that severely affected its crop.
Brazil’s soy exports to its neighbor from January to May
reached 1.92 million metric tons, while the volume shipped in
May alone was 978,500 metric tons, official data showed, while
analysts still see room for more.
Argentina, the third largest global soybean producer behind
Brazil and the United States, saw its crop shrink 43% to 25
million metric tons in 2022/23, according to figures from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Argentina’s Rosario
grains exchange estimated an even smaller harvest, closer to
20.5 million metric tons.
With a large export industry for soy oil and meal, Argentina
had to increase imports of the raw bean, which are expected to
double to about 9 million metric tons in the current season.
Although it was expected that Brazil would meet much of this
demand, the volume exported in May was enough for Argentina to
overtake Spain as the second largest buyer of Brazilian soy,
behind China, the data showed.
The increase in shipments of Brazilian soy helped improve
supply to Argentina’s crushers, which also began to buy more
beans from local producers following the government’s so-called
‘soy dollar’ program, said Gabriel Faleiros, analyst at S&P
Global Commodity Insights.
This tends to limit, in the very short term, the need for a
new avalanche of imported Brazilian soybeans, he added, while
also agreeing that volumes imported by Argentina are still
expected to increase throughout the year.
S&P Global Commodity Insights reduced its forecast for total
soybean imports by Argentina this year to 9 million metric tons,
from 10 million previously.
Argentina should import about 5 million metric tons from
Paraguay this year. Brazil is still expected to export an
additional 2 to 3 million metric tons to the neighboring
country, Faleiros said.
(Reporting by Roberto Samora; Writing by Peter Frontini;
Editing by Richard Chang)
