Brazil's 2009 soy exports seen rising 10 percent on-year

 

 

Brazil's soy exports are likely to rise 10 percent this year compared to last year, according to the Foreign Trade Ministry.

 

"Brazil's soy exports were very strong this year mainly because of strong demand from countries such as China as well as other Asian nations," Welber Barral, secretary of foreign trade, told Dow Jones Newswires this week.

 

Soy exports will rise 10 percent from 24.4 million tonnes last year, Barral said.

 

China bought large volumes of soy from April through June, and Barral said he hopes Asian buying will continue in 2010.

 

The country's 2009 soy exports are already 85 percent to 90 percent completed, he said. As a result, exports trailed off in August as producers and buyers had already traded a large amount of beans in the previous months.

 

Soy exports hit 2.9 million tonnes in August, up from 2.3 million in August 2008, the ministry said Tuesday.

 

The soy trade brought in US$10.9 billion to Brazil in 2008, making soy Brazil's most important agricultural commodity.

 

The country's soy crop is pegged at 57.1 million tonnes in 2008-09, compared with 60 million tonnes in 2007-08, according to Brazil's National Commodities Supply Corp., or Conab.

 

Brazil is the world's second-largest soy exporter, behind the US.