Argentina to Import Record Amount of Brazilian Soybeans

In anticipation of a very disappointing 2022/23 soybean crop, crushers in Argentina are stepping up their purchases of Brazilian soybeans in order to fulfill their contracts for soybean meal and soybean oil.

During the first weeks of January, it was reported that 300-400,000 tons of Brazilian soybeans were sold to Argentina for shipment in February and March and that the total amount of soybean imports could reach as much as 2 million tons for all of 2023. The most soybeans Brazil has exported to Argentina was 657,000 tons in 2018, but it has rarely exceeded 300,000 tons in recent years.

Argentine crushers must be desperate for soybeans because most of the shipments until March are going to come out of the Port of Santarem on the Amazon River, which is 4,500 kilometers from Buenos Aires. It is reported that the price paid for the soybeans was $1.10 over the March contract at the Chicago Board of Trade.

Once the soybean harvest gets underway in southern Brazil, additional soybean supplies from Brazil will come out of the Port of Murtinho on the Parana River in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul or be trucked across the border from the states of Parana, Santa Catarina, or Rio Grande do Sul.

When the soybean harvest gets started in Paraguay in mid-February, additional soybean supplies will be barged down the Parana River to crushers at Rosario, Argentina. The cheapest source of soybean imports into Argentina is from Paraguay.

Tags: soybean oil, soybeans, soybean meal, crop, imports, Argentina, shipment, Brazilian