Brazilian soybean sales improve in August, but pace remains slow

Porto Alegre, September 6, 2021 – In August the pace of soybean trading improved a little in Brazil compared to the two previous months. With prices returning to slightly higher levels, mainly due to the exchange rate, growers advanced a little more in sales of the physical crop, taking advantage of market opportunities. Despite this, the pace remains below the one registered in the first months of the year, and there is no expectation that this will change.

Growers took advantage of moments when the dollar gained strength against the Brazilian currency to negotiate a few more volumes of physical soybeans. Regarding the new crop, again a few deals were reported.

The growers’ attention is now turning to the planting start of the new Brazilian soybean crop, which begins in the middle of the month in some states. This fact, together with the good capitalization of growers, should weaken the interest in new sales for the coming few months, although new opportunities may arise from Chicago and the exchange rate.

According to a survey carried out by SAFRAS & Mercado, with data collected up to September 3, 85.9% of the current Brazilian soybean crop (2020/21) have already been sold, up 4% compared to the percentage of the previous month (81.9%). For comparison purposes, in the previous month, the advance had been only 2.7%. The current percentage is equivalent to nearly 117.840 million tons already traded from the production estimated at 137.194 million tons. In the same period of the previous year, the index was 97.9%, while the five-year average for the period is 88.5%.

For the new Brazilian soybean crop (2021/22), the percentage sold reaches 25.6%, up 1.9% from the previous month (23.7%). The percentage is equivalent to around 36.344 million tons of a crop initially estimated at 142.236 million tons. In the same period of the previous year, the committed percentage had reached 49.3%, while the five-year average is 24.9%.

Safras & Mercado

Tags: Brazil, soybeans, Porto Alegre