China’s soybean imports from Brazil plunged in August from a year ago, customs data shows, as high prices capped purchases of the oilseed from the South American nation.
Imports from smaller suppliers including Uruguay and the United States both increased.
China, the world’s biggest soybean buyer, imported 6.25 million tonnes of the oilseed from Brazil in August, down from 9.04 million tonnes a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
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Total imports last month plunged 25 per cent from a year before to 7.17 million tonnes, the lowest for August since 2014, as high global prices and weak demand curbed appetite for the oilseed, customs data showed earlier.
Summer arrivals are typically dominated by Brazilian origin beans, but bad weather pushed up prices of the oilseed in Brazil at a time when Chinese demand was poor.
Demand for soymeal from the feed sector has been weak after hog farmers suffered huge losses earlier this year.
Arrivals from the United States, China’s No. 2 supplier, reached 286,762 tonnes, up from 17,575 tonnes in the same month last year, according to customs data.
China also imported 350,342 tonnes from Uruguay and 197,770 tonnes from Argentina in August, compared with zero cargoes from either country a year ago.
Imports from Argentina, the world’s No.3 supplier, are expected to jump in the coming months, however, after the country offered an exchange rate incentive to farmers during September to boost exports.
Farmers sold 15 per cent of the country’s 2021-22 soybean crop in the seven days following the incentive, the Rosario grains exchange said recently.
