MY 2024/25 will be a “soybean” season for Ukraine

This season is expected to be marked by record soybean production in Ukraine. Ukrainian farmers, like their counterparts from the US, Argentina and Brazil, bought seed back in winter, and it was already clear that this season would be a soybean season, said Natalia Levkoniuk, ASAP Agri’s sales consultant, at the All-Ukrainian Field Day on June 28.

“The decrease in supplies is expected for all commodity groups, except soybeans. For soybeans, USDA forecasts a record export of 3.5 mln tons. The UGA is even more optimistic with a forecast of 4 million tons of exports! But the question is, how can they export 3.5 million tons of soybeans? Because the global demand for soybeans will grow by only 18 mln tons, while the world production together with the ending stocks will increase by 36 mln tons!” noted Levkoniuk.

According to her, there are still cases when exporters are unable to fill in customs documents for soybeans. Thus, at the beginning of the new season, Ukraine will have the second largest ending stocks of soybeans – 355 thsd tonnes.

“I would also like to remind you of the large financial losses of our exporters in October 2023, when the control over the customs documents was tightened. Many Ukrainian soybean sellers lost Turkish buyers and it worsened the image of Ukraine. The vessels were idle for two weeks and this hit the pocket of an average Ukrainian trader very hard,” Levkoniuk added.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy forecasts the soybean harvest in 2024/25 MY at 5 mln tonnes, which will be the record in the history of Ukraine.

Tags: soybean, crop forecast, sown area, Ukraine