The demand for biofuels has been increasingly important to maintain the growth of soybean planting in Brazil, at a time when China, the largest global importer, is adopting a strategy of not increasing its imports as much as it did before, assessed this Wednesday the president of the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove), André Nassar.
The president of Abiove, an association that brings together trading companies and processors, considers that China appears to intend to maintain a level of total imports of 100 million tons of soybeans from all origins, as it seeks to depend less on imports.
“Let's admit that there was no demand for biofuels, I don't see soybeans growing 1 million hectares per year (in Brazil) as happened in recent years to meet the needs of China,” Nassar told journalists, after participating in a sector seminar promoted by Argus.
“I don’t see that anymore, we would probably see a certain reduction.”
The Chinese strategy
Despite reduced margins, Brazil is expected to expand the planted area in the 2024/25 harvest, starting in September.
Even so, Brazil may have a “huge” harvest after productivity recovery due to drought and floods in 2023/24.
“Soybeans will not stop growing, but the producer will try to expand the harvest,” he said, without a forecast from the association. “In a good year, we would produce 170 million tons; this year, only 152 million”, he stated.
A production of this size in the largest global producer and exporter would have an impact on the market.
“Imagine 170 million tons of soybeans. Next year we will have a huge production.”
Source: Roberto Samora | Notícias Agrícolas
