U.S. soybean futures rose for a sixth consecutive session on Friday and hit a four-year high on dry conditions in key South American crop areas and concerns about dwindling U.S. supplies. Corn also gained on strong exports and worries about South American dryness, while wheat ended mixed.
A U.S. grain export terminal near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is loading about 38,000 tons of U.S. soybeans on a bulk cargo vessel for shipment to Brazil, according to Southport Agencies shipping lineup.
Bloomberg has reported that the United States began selling soybeans to Brazil after the Chamber of Foreign Trade (CAMEX) temporarily suspended import tariffs for corn and soybeans. This is a rare event that can be explained because Brazil has taken the lead in the production and export of the oilseed.
With stockpiles of oilseed at their lowest in decades, Brazil's Bunge SA is processing soybeans from Paraguay, and now also from Uruguay, which also plants over a million hectares of the oilseed.
Brazil's agribusiness exports during August 2020, reached US$ 8.91 billion, an increase of 7.8% in relation to the same month in 2019 (US$ 8.26 billion). Between August 2019 and 2020, agribusiness product exports grew by 16.5% in absolute values.
According to the Agricensus Agency, a load of Brazilian soy exported to northern China was detained on July 25 because ten crew members aboard a ship from Rio Grande do Sul have tested positive for Covid-19.
Brazilian soybeans imports to China during the month of March dropped 24.8%, over the same month last year. The data was released by the Chinese General Customs Administration last Sunday, April 26, and shows soy imports from Brazil reached 2.1 million tons in March, compared to 2.79 million tons in the same period last year.
Brazil, the world’s largest soy producer, and supplier, shipped 3.55 million tons of soybeans in the first three weeks of February, up 367% month on month, according to a report from the Brazilian foreign trade department.
It rained more in two days than it usually does in a month in some northern Argentine soy growing areas recently, but the crop losses will have little effect on national production when harvesting starts next month, farm weather experts said.
China said on Tuesday it would accept applications for new tariff exemptions for 696 products imported from the United States including key agricultural and energy products such as pork, beef, soybeans, liquefied natural gas and crude oil.