RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian farmers have sold 56.5% of their beans in advance through December 4th, Safras & Mercado, an agribusiness consultancy, said in a statement last Friday, December 4th. Considering Brazil is poised to collect 133.517 million tons of the oilseeds this season, the volume of pre-sold soy amounts to an estimated 75.403 million tons, Safras said.
“There were few deals in November, still, pre sales are well above average,” Safras said.
At this time last season, forward sales of Brazil’s most prized export commodity represented 37.8% of the estimated crop, according to Safras data. The historical average is 34.5%.
There were very few soybeans left from the prior season on the domestic market, which led Brazil to resort to soybean imports in 2020. A net food exporter, Brazil sold huge volumes to China and was left with little for internal use during the inter-harvest period.
Farmers only have an estimated 1.4 million tons they can trade from their 2019/2020 output, Safras said.
According to government data, Brazil imported 625,000 tons of soybeans in the first 10 months of the year, the most since 2003, with the bulk coming from neighboring Paraguay.
Imports included a rare 30,500 tons purchase of US soybeans, which is presently being unloaded from a vessel at the port of Paranaguá.