The commercialization of the current (2019/20) and new (2020/21) Brazilian soybean crops had very little progress in May and the first week of June.
As mentioned in the previous week, May was marked by two different moments in terms of prices in Brazil, which resulted in a slower advance in the volume sales of both the current and new seasons, especially in the second half of the month. The strong fall in the dollar was a determining factor. A higher than normal volume of commitments was also influential, which results in a good capitalization of growers and few remaining volumes for the rest of the year.
According to a survey carried out by SAFRAS & Mercado, with data collected until June 5, 88.7% of the current Brazilian soybean crop (2019/20) have already been sold, with a small advance of 3.5% over the previous month (85.2%). The current percentage is equivalent to approximately 110.54 million tons already negotiated, from an estimated output of 124.61 million tons. In the same period last year, the index was at 63.4%, while the normal five-year average for the period is 67.4%.
For Brazil’s new soybean crop (2020/21), which begins to be sown in September, the survey points out that 35.6% of a hypothetical estimate for production (based on 2019/20) have already been committed, indicating a small advance of 4.1% compared to the April figure (31.5%). In the same period of the previous year, only 11.9% had been sold. The five-year average for the period is 8.3%. Area and production data of the current crop were used to calculate the percentage of commitment for the new season. The first official estimate by SAFRAS & Mercado for area, productivity, and production of the new Brazilian soybean crop is traditionally released in July.