EU weekly soybean imports at 228,000 tonnes with year-to-date volumes down 1%

Weekly soybean imports into the EU totaled 227,693 tonnes in the week ended Sunday June 23, according to initial data from the European Commission released on Tuesday June 25.

The biggest soybean importer over the week was Germany with 84,006 tonnes, followed by Spain with 74,474 tonnes and Italy with 47,832 tonnes.

The total soybean imports for the current marketing year stand at 12.77 million tonnes, down by 1% from a year earlier.

Spain (3.32 million tonnes), the Netherlands (2.99 million tonnes), Germany (2.30 million tonnes), Italy (2.11 million tonnes) and Portugal (866,531 tonnes) have been the main importers since the current marketing season began in July.

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Soybean meal imports are down

Weekly soybean meal imports by countries in the economic bloc amounted to 244,729 tonnes.

Poland imported 57,722 tonnes of the weekly volume of soybean meal, followed by Greece with 25,910 tonnes, Denmark with 25,880 tonnes, Northern Ireland with 25,360 tonnes and Spain with 25,280 tonnes.

The cumulative volume since the beginning of the season is 15.33 million tonnes, down by 3% year on year, according to preliminary data.

Poland (2.84 million tonnes), the Netherlands (2.11 million tonnes), France (1.76 million tonnes), Spain (1.72 million tonnes) and Italy (1.34 million tonnes) are the top five importers of soybean meal since the start of the season.

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Rapeseed imports have dropped

Imports of rapeseed into the EU totaled 134,688 tonnes in the week to June 23, pushing the total to 5.48 million tonnes for the marketing year, which is 26% lower than a year earlier.

Belgium booked the majority of the weekly volume, taking in 123,678 tonnes.

The major importers of rapeseed since July 2023 are Belgium (1.56 million tonnes), Germany (1.38 million tonnes), France (940,743 tonnes), the Netherlands (765,079 tonnes) and Greece (212,692 tonnes), according to the Commission’s report.

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Sunflower oil imports are up

Weekly sunflower oil imports totaled 52,316 tonnes, which brought the cumulative volume of imports since the beginning of the season to 2.68 million tonnes, 53% higher than a year earlier.

Spain (758,680 tonnes), the Netherlands (441,884 tonnes), Poland (421,245 tonnes), Italy (416,731 tonnes) and Bulgaria (146,218 tonnes) are the top five importers since the start of the season.

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Palm oil imports have increased

Finally, imports of palm oil totaled 25,842 tonnes during the week, with Italy importing the most at 17,742 tonnes.

This has increased the total number of imports since the beginning of July to 3.26 million tonnes, which is 19% lower than last year.

The main importers since the beginning of the current season are Italy (1.14 million tonnes), the Netherlands (946,110 tonnes), Spain (483,373 tonnes), Germany (257,497 tonnes) and Sweden (104,427 tonnes).

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The Commission’s import data does not include Hungary’s imports because data from the country was not available between the end November 2023 and the end of May 2024.