US outpaces Brazil in soybean deliveries to Europe

Soybeans are the most important oilseed crop imported to the European Union, ahead of rapeseed.

EU-27 imports in the first four-and-a-half months of the running marketing year amounted nearly 4.9 million metric tons. In the same period of the 2021-’22 season, imports were around 900,000 tons more.

In addition, there were significant shifts in suppliers of both imported and processed soybeans.

Brazil and the U.S. remained the top suppliers. By mid-November, around 1.7 million tons of soybeans had come into the EU from Brazil. This was only half the previous year’s volume of 3.4 million tons.

Consequently, the share of Brazilian soybeans in total EU soybean imports dropped 23 percentage points to 36 percent. The gap was filled by increases in deliveries from the U.S.

More specifically, the U.S. delivered around 2.1 million tons in the period from July 1 to Dec. 11, which was up 31 percent on the same period a year earlier.

Soybean meal is an equally important import commodity for Europe. Its import volume was only slightly smaller than the previous year. At 7.1 million tons, soybean meal imports were down just less than 19,000 tons on the same period last year.

Again, there were shifts in suppliers.

According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), Brazil moved to the top of suppliers, delivering 800,000 tons more than in last year’s period. At 3.8 million tons, Brazil is now ahead of Argentina, which delivered nearly 2.6 million tons. This was down 600,000 tons year on year.