April 4, 2006

 

Brazil's soybean exports hit 2.6 million tonnes in March

 

 

Brazil soy exports totalled 2.6 million tonnes in March, compared with 720,500 tonnes in February, according to Commerce Ministry data.

 

Daily export volume rose by 188 percent to 115,400 tonnes from 40,000 tonnes in February, worth US$620.4 million in March compared to US$171.6 million in February.

 

"Volume is up and will remain up for some time because we are seeing the new harvest come in," said Guilherme Correia, a trader at soy exporter, Coimex.

 

"Last week's rise in the dollar gave a big push to exports this month, too. We saw exceptional volume last week when you think of the weeks we've been having," Correia said. The US dollar was trading at nearly 2.21 Brazilian reals on March 28, but has since fallen to 2.14 reals as of Tuesday.

 

By comparison, Brazil exported 1.9 million tonnes of soybeans in March 2005, worth US$400 million.

 

Soy meal exports also doubled, rising to 1 million tonnes in March compared with 537,500 tonnes in February. Daily export volume of soymeal rose 55.5 percent to 46,400 tonnes from 29,900 tonnes, worth US$215 million in March compared with US$110 million in February.

 

In March 2006, Brazil's soy meal exports totalled 1.08 million tonnes and were worth US$202.9 million.

 

Soyoil exports rose to 125,500 tonnes in March, up from the 119,200 tonnes exported in February, with daily volume actually declining 17.6 percent to 5,500 tonnes on the month in comparison to the 6,600 tonnes exported in February, according to Commerce Ministry data.

 

By comparison, Brazil exported 8,500 tonnes of soy oil daily in March 2005, for a total of nearly 186,300 tonnes.

 

Soyoil revenue rose to US$56.7 million, up US$5 million from February, but down considerably from the US$85.7 million tonnes in March 2005.

 

"It's going to be tough to compare Brazil's soy story this year to last March because soy prices were falling fast back then and farmers were already expecting a smaller crop because of drought losses, so soybean volume was much lower for those two factors," said Seneri Paludo, a soy market analyst at agribusiness consulting firm AgRural.

 

"There's definitely going to be increased volume in the months head, but you'll see less income as prices drop and the dollar remains weak," Paludo said.