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Our team of price reporters brings you the top stories and market movements making headlines in the soy market this week.
Soybean CBOT futures showed a lack of direction before jumping higher after the USDA supply and demand Wasde report was released on Friday 8 April as the agency delivered the expected cuts to US and global ending stocks.
While the USDA increased US bean exports and reduced the country’s ending stocks more than anticipated by analysts, the agency’s cut to global ending stocks came in below what had been expected.
With that, front-month soybean futures traded both sides in the immediate aftermath of the release, but upward support ended up getting the upper hand.
The USDA April estimates pegged US ending stocks at 260 million bushels (7.1 million tonnes), 25 million bushels (0.7 million tonnes) lower on the month and slightly below average expectations set forth by analysts according to a Fastmarkets’ poll published last week.
Exports were also upgraded by 25 million bushels (0.7 million tonnes) compared to the previous month “partly offsetting lower exports from Brazil, Ukraine, and Russia,” the agency said.
Lower ending stocks are also linked to higher domestic use forecasts due to larger planting intentions.
Brazil’s soy oil and soymeal exports during the first quarter of 2022 reached multi-year highs while March soybean exports dropped mildly on the year, official customs office data showed late Thursday 7 April.
Soyoil
Brazil exported a 14-year high of nearly 500,000 tonnes of soyoil in the first quarter of 2022 amid a tight market and high export demand, official customs data showed.
First quarter soyoil exports landed at 478,086 tonnes, the largest volume shipped in the first three months of the year since 2008 when exports reached 482,692 tonnes.
The country exported 216,477 tonnes of soyoil in March, nearly 100,000 tonnes above levels shipped in the previous year.
On Thursday 7 April, Brazil’s food agency Conab said it expects the country to export 1.56 million tonnes of soyoil in 2021-2022 as beans are diverted from direct exports to the domestic crush industry backed by high crush margins and robust export demand.
Soymeal
Brazil also exported 1.5 million tonnes of soymeal in March, lifting total volumes shipped in the first quarter of the year to 4.5 million tonnes, 1.3 million tonnes higher on the year.
This is the largest volume for the first quarter on Brazil’s customs office records that started in 1997.
The main destination markets since the beginning of the calendar year were southeast Asia and Europe.
Soybeans
Brazil exported 12.3 million tonnes of soybeans in March as volumes shipped dropped 3% on the year.
The year-on-year decline is linked to lower volumes shipped to China as the world’s main soybean importer booked 8.6 million tonnes from Brazil in March, over 500,000 tonnes lower compared to March 2021.
Most volumes were originated from Mato Grosso (4.0 million tonnes), São Paulo (1.9 million tonnes), Goiás (1.5 million tonnes) and Paraná (1.4 million tonnes) although Mato Grosso and Paraná March shipments fell 22% and 26% on the year.
Brazil has exported 21 million tonnes of beans since the start of the 2022 calendar year, 36% more than during the same period in 2021 as in the current marketing year planting and harvest works happened earlier, increasing the availability of beans at ports in January and February.
Canadian weekly grain exports increased 26% on the week, but the accumulated year-to-date figure remains 43% below last year, according to data from the country’s agriculture ministry published Thursday.
Weekly wheat exports increased 10% from 171,300 tonnes last week to 188,700 tonnes and pushed the total since August 1 to 7.8 million tonnes in the current year.
Unlike last week, barley exports during the week increased from 2,500 tonnes last week to 25,800 tonnes this week, bringing the total figure to 1.8 million tonnes.
Total grains and oilseeds exports from Canada now stand at 21 million tonnes, a 43% decline from last year’s 36.9 million tonnes, with 438,400 tonnes shipped during the reported week.
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