Brazil exports record soybean, corn volumes in Sep with China main buyer
Brazil exported record soybean and corn volumes in September, with China as the prime destination for both commodities, official customs data shows.
Corn
China continued to ramp up its corn purchases from Brazil in September as the South American country shipped 8.8 million mt of the grain, one of the highest monthly volumes on record, just behind the 9.4 million mt exported in August.
Volumes headed to China in September amounted to a record 3.3 million mt, lifting total volumes exported to the Asian country since the start of the calendar year up to 7.9 million mt.
Brazil’s total corn exports during the first three quarters of the year rose to 34 million mt, the largest on record for the period and nearly 10 million mt higher on the year.
Considering the accumulated corn volume shipped since January, China was the main destination followed by Japan (4.1 million mt), Vietnam (2.6 million mt), South Korea (2.6 million mt) and Iran (1.9 million mt).
Soybeans
Brazil’s soybean exports to China were also the largest on record for a September month, with the 5.1 million mt headed to the Asian country representing 79% of total bean volumes shipped during the month.
Total September exports at 6.4 million mt were also a record for September, over 1.5 million mt higher than the previous 2021 record.
Since January, Brazil has shipped 87.3 million mt of soybeans, 16.8 million mt more than in the previous year.
Besides China, which snapped 61.7 million mt of Brazilian beans through the first three quarters of the year, other relevant destinations were Spain (2.7 million mt), Thailand (2.2 million mt), Turkey (1.7 million mt), Mexico (1.6 million mt) and Iran (1.5 million mt).
Despite its proximity to the US, Mexico has ramped up significantly its sourcing of soybeans from Brazil this year incentivized by the South American country’s price competitiveness, with year-to-date volumes more than doubling on the year.
Soy products
Brazil’s soymeal and soyoil exports, meanwhile, lost some steam in September as some crushing plants stopped for scheduled maintenance works, reducing the domestic availability.
Soymeal exports dropped from 2.4 million mt in August to 1.7 million mt while soyoil shipments declined from 201,078 mt in August to 154,667 mt.
That said, year-to-date shipments remained 1 million mt higher on the year for soymeal, at 17 million mt, while accumulated soyoil shipments were slightly higher at 2 million mt compared with 1.9 million mt year-ago.
The main importers of Brazil’s soyoil since the beginning of the year were India (1.1 million mt), China (210,278 mt) and Bangladesh (201,378 mt).
For soymeal, the main destinations of volumes shipped through the first three quarters of the year were Thailand (2.6 million mt), Indonesia (2.6 million mt), the Netherlands (1.4 million mt), Germany (1.3million mt), Vietnam (1.2 million mt) and France (1.1 million mt).