Mato Grosso Feb soy crush up on year on higher margin: IMEA

Processors in Mato Grosso crushed 824,700 mt of soybeans in February, up 10.8% on the year, as prices of meal and bran boost production margins, the farm economics institute (IMEA) of Mato Grosso reported in a bulletin late Monday.

The monthly crush in February is 24.4% higher than the previous month, as freshly harvested volumes are more readily available, and crushers returned to the market after their seasonal maintenance at the end of the last crop, IMEA noted.

With Argentina’s soy crop down 30% compared to last year, demand for soymeal and bran from the international market has now turned to Brazil, lifting prices and improving crush margins.

The institute expects demand for these products to remain “heated” for the coming months, as Argentina, the world’s main bran supplier, will be mostly out of the picture this season.

This, in turn, will keep crush margins and processing activity high throughout the season of which “Brazil, and mainly Mato Grosso, can take advantage of”, IMEA said.

The soybean harvest in Mato Grosso reached 91.3%, an increase of 8.5 percentage points from last week.

Despite the recent international rise in soybean prices, only farmers in the southeast of Mato Grosso can cover their production costs this campaign, as a rise in trucking costs to transport beans to southern ports has eaten into the final bag price that farmers receive.