May 4, 2004

Brazil Soybean Exports Up On Year

While the soybean harvest is nearing conclusion, Brazil soybean exports are running well ahead as compared with a year ago. 

Soybean registration reached 15.7 million MT by April 15th, a growth of 30.2 percent over the same period last year. 

According to reports from SECEX (the Brazilian External Trade Secretariat), released by the Brazil soybean crushers' association, ABIOVE, export registration for the current commercial year totaled 15.7 million tons. This is in comparison to 12.1 million tons from a year ago, and accounting for 74.2 percent of ABIOVE's projected annual exports.  

For soymeal, export registration totaled 6.4 million tons, 0.3 percent below the year-ago level. Soyoil exports are down 5 percent from the previous year, at 927,000 tons compared to 975,000 tons last year.  

The harvest is nearly finished. By April 30, 94 percent of the planted area was harvested, according to the weekly survey of private analyst Celeres. This is slightly ahead of the figure last year when 91 percent of the crop was in the 5-year average of 90 percent. 

In the Center-west, only limited areas of the Distrito Federal remain to be harvested. Analysts will be using the coming weeks to determine how severe crop losses were in that area.