Brazil yearly soybean exports beat USDA estimate with month to go

Brazil exports of soybean totalled 2.36 million mt in December, taking the total exports for the February 2017-January 2018 marketing year to 67 million mt, data from the ministry of industry, foreign trade and services showed Tuesday.

The tonnage exported in December is almost four times as much as the 650,000 mt sold in December 2016, while year-to-date exports are up 15% on the 52 million mt shipped in the same 11 months in the 2016/17 season.

The year-to-date figures mean that Brazil's exports have outstripped the USDA estimate by 2 million mt with one month of the marketing year to go.

The news will be of little surprise to the trade, which has long anticipated that Brazil shipments would soar this season after farmers harvested a bumper 114 million mt crop in the 2016/17 season.

Analysts predict that this year’s crop will reach a similar total, with most estimates for the crop lying between 109-114 million mt.

For corn, a similar picture has emerged with exports totalling nearly 4 million mt in December, nearly four times as much as the previous December’s figure of just over 1 million mt.

Exports so far this year are 50% up year-on-year, with corn shipments totalling 27 million mt in the February 2017-January 2018 period, up from 18 million mt a year earlier.