Brazil exported from January to July this year, according to data from the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), from the Ministry of Economy (Mdic), more than 69.7 million tons, 72.4% of which went to China alone, which purchased 50.5 million tons of soy from Brazil.
This amount of soy sold by Brazil to the whole world represents an increase of 36.4% compared to the 51.1 million tons exported in January and July 2019. In other words, in 2020, China bought, practically, the entire volume that Brazil exported until July 2019 to the world.
"Brazil had record soy production this year, while the real depreciated. Brazilian grains are cheap and the crushing margins are large, so the crushers made very active purchases” said Xie Huilan, an analyst at agricultural consultancy Cofeed.
Soybean and soybean meal stocks in China increased significantly after reaching low records earlier this year, with Brazilian cargoes replenishing supplies.
Soy shipments are expected to remain large in the coming months, with good profits and healthy demand from the livestock sector, traders and processors said.
China has been working to increase the country's pig production after the outbreaks of African swine fever, first discovered in the country in August 2018, decimated its huge herd.