Brazil has reached the highest volumes of soybean imports in the past 17 years.

Between January and November of this year, imports of soybeans reached 772 thousand tonnes, well above the 131 thousand imported in the same period of 2019, according to data from the Brazilian Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex). Until the third week of December, acquisitions totaled 54 thousand tonnes, compared to just over 13 thousand registered in the same period last year.

With these figures, Brazilian soy imports have already reached the highest volume in the last 17 years. The last time that Brazil imported such a significant volume of soybeans was in 2003, when it purchased 1.156 million tonnes of the grain. The forecast is for a total volume of around 850 thousand tonnes for this year, according to market analysts.

Paraguay is the main source, accounting for 85% of the volume, followed by Uruguay with 11%. Brazil also imported 30 thousand tonnes from the USA, an unusual source due to the import duty that was zeroed for a limited period of time. Imports are expected to decline until February, when the new harvest begins to reach the domestic market.