Market News & Headlines >> Record Brazilian Soybean Exports in May

Brazil’s soybean exports surged to a record high in May, despite a truckers strike that disrupted transport of soybeans to port, according to that country’s trade ministry. 

Large stocks of soybeans at ports helped ensure record exports, a trade ministry official said at a press conference on Friday. The ministry estimated May soybean exports at 12.35 million metric tons up from 10.26 million tons in April and 10.96 million tons in May, 2017. For the January-May period, soybean exports totaled 36.0 million tons, also a record high, 3.1% above a year earlier. 

The Brazilian oilseed processors association, ABIOVE, in late May raised its estimate of Brazil’s calendar 2018 soybean exports to 72.1 million tons from a previous forecast of 71.2 million and up 5.7% from 2017 exports of 68.2 million tons. USDA currently estimates Brazil will export 70.75 million metric tons of soybeans during its local 2017/18 marketing year, which started Feb. 1 and runs through January 2019.