August 22, 2012

South American countries to boost soy imports

Following poor crop harvests at home, Brazil and Argentina will both raise soy imports in coming months.

"Brazil has already started to increase imports of soy, probably approaching 100,000 tonnes in August," Oil World said Tuesday (Aug 21). "In addition, Brazil is likely to import 300,000-400,000 tonnes of soy from Bolivia following the recent removal of administrative restrictions."

Brazil is the world's second largest soy exporter after the US while Argentina is the third largest. But crops in both South American countries were heavily damaged by drought earlier this year and their imports will add to tight global soy supplies.

Argentina's government has decided to permit soy imports from Paraguay and Bolivia for crushing, Oil World said.

"This will hardly have any immediate impact because old crop stocks of Paraguay and Uruguay are virtually committed (to buyers)," Oil World said. "But it could lead to a sizeable increase in Argentine soy imports as soon as new crop supplies become available in Paraguay in January."