ASSESSMENTS

Why China Is Hungry for Brazilian Soy

Apr 10, 2018 | 09:00 GMT

Trucks laden with imported soybeans prepare to depart a port in eastern China in April 2018.

Trucks laden with imported soybeans prepare to depart a port in eastern China in April 2018. In 2017, Brazil supplied more than half of China's imported soybeans.

(-/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Brazil's poor infrastructure has long hurt the competitiveness of its soybean exports, but the country's producers will benefit greatly as new rail and port projects come online in the Amazon region.
  • Problems for its main soybean export rivals, the United States and Argentina, will strengthen Brazil's trade relations with China this year.
  • Brazil's soybean exports to China will increase further because the South American country has an abundance of land suitable for producing soybeans with higher protein levels.

 

It's a long way from the southern reaches of the Brazilian Amazon to China, but it's a path that many more are set to tread. In the early 2000s, China didn't even figure among Brazil's top five export markets, but in every year since 2009, Beijing has been Brasilia's main trade partner. Today, China is a major market for Brazil's soybean exports, which account for over 40 percent of its total exports to the Asian country. And because of Beijing's trade spat with the United States and ambitious infrastructure investments in Brazil, Brazilian soybean exports to China are poised to keep growing....

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