Brazil, US switch roles as China’s top soybean, corn supplier for Jan-Feb

China’s soybean imports from Brazil in the first two months of 2024 surged by over 200% from a year ago to 6.96 million tonnes, figures from the country’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) showed on Wednesday March 20.

This formed 53.4% of the total 13.04 million tonnes imported by China in January-February, and contrasts sharply against the scenario a year ago when Brazilian beans formed just 15.5% of China’s soybean imports at 2.24 million tonnes and US soybeans were the top supplier at 9.84 million tonnes of the total 14.4 million tonnes imported.

A record harvest leading to attractively priced beans saw Brazilian soybeans getting snapped up by Chinese buyers in a period that is typically dominated by US soybeans.

As such, China’s soybean imports from the US in January-February this year fell by 49.6% to 4.96 million tonnes, with its import share falling to 38.03% from 68.2% a year ago.

China is also expected to see more soybeans from South America arriving in coming months when the soybean harvest takes place in Brazil and Argentina, with estimates from the China National Grain and Oil Information Centre (CNGOIC) pegging soybean imports for March at 6.5 million tonnes and averaging around 10 million tonnes each month between April-June.

A similar switch of roles played out for China’s corn imports in January-February, with Brazil taking the US’ position as top supplier for the period. China cleared 4.1 million tonnes of corn from Brazil out of the total 6.19 million tonnes imported.

This marks a 178% increase from the same period a year ago, where Brazilian corn formed 28% of corn imported in the first two months of 2023.

Meanwhile corn imports from the US fell by 67.4% on the year to 766,989 tonnes, coming in behind volumes from Ukraine which were recorded at 1.14 million tonnes.

Note: China’s soybean imports from the US for January-February 2023 were revised down to 9.84 million tonnes from the 11.59 million tonnes reported in March last year