Brazil and the United States were the largest exporters of soybeans in the world during 2021, with both countries reaching all-time highs.
While foreign sales of soybeans from Brazil totaled 38,639 million dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 35.3%, those from the United States totaled 27,523 million, with an annual increase of 7.5%.
With high economic and nutritional value, soybeans are an important crop with growing global demand.
At the same time, soybeans are the largest and most concentrated segment of world agricultural trade.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), two land-abundant countries, Brazil and the United States, supply the majority of world soybean exports, with China accounting for more than 60 percent of world soybean imports.
Factors behind Brazil’s emergence as the world’s leading soybean exporter (and its competition with the United States for China’s soybean import market), include Brazil’s long-term strategy of cultivating the vast tracts of land in savannah areas (known as the Cerrados) extending the frontier of soybean production into the vast interior regions of the country.
Soybean exporters
The USDA highlights that Brazil’s agricultural production has grown rapidly in the last two decades, driven by growing global demand, strong prices and technological advances.
In particular, the increase in productivity and the expansion of the harvested area have allowed Brazil to become a leading exporter of soybeans, corn, sugar, meat, coffee and ethanol.
With continued increases in productivity and more land available for agriculture, further growth in Brazil’s agricultural output and exports is anticipated.
Also, rising per capita income and population growth will continue to drive demand for agricultural products in Brazil, including higher-value commodities.
Other major soybean exporters in the world in 2021 were: Paraguay, with foreign sales of 2,975 million dollars, which represented a growth of 38.6% year-on-year and a record, and Canada, with foreign sales of 2,401 million and an increase of 24.3 % annual and also a record.
On the contrary, located in fifth position, Argentina‘s exports were 2,232 million dollars, a reduction of 4.7% year-on-year.
