Estimates of soybean imports to China increased

The Committee for Agricultural Forecasts (Casde) raised the estimates of soybean imports to China for the seasons-2022/23 (October 2022-September 2023) and 2023/24 (October 2023-September 2024) – to 99.86 mln tonnes and 97.25 mln tonnes, respectively.

In last month’s report, the analysts gave forecasts of 95.2 mln tonnes for 2022/23 MY and 94.22 mln tonnes for 2023/24 MY.

“The expected growth of soybean imports is mainly due to the high demand for feed (meal, cake) from the livestock and poultry industries in China,” – the experts said.

At the same time, the experts note that the prices for soybeans on the global market are expected to remain high, as the condition of oilseeds of the new harvest in the US is strongly affected by the drought.

“This, coupled with the depreciation of the Chinese national currency against the dollar, will lead to higher costs of soybean imports,” the analysts added.

Against the background of the expected increase in purchases, the estimates of soybean consumption in China were also raised to 115.07 mln tonnes in 2022/23 MY and 116.92 mln tonnes in 2023/24 MY, compared to 112.87 mln tonnes and 114.14 mln tonnes in the August report, respectively.