Soybean prices recorded losses again last week in Chicago, with the contract for May ending Thursday (6) at 1492.50 cents per bushel, as on Friday (7) the market was closed due to the Good Friday holiday.
The progress of the Argentine crop continues to be closely monitored, but even with estimated losses of almost 50% of soybean production in the 2022/23 cycle, soybean prices have not found lasting support. In addition to the Brazilian crop being confirmed as an absolute record, there are concerns on the demand side, given the weaker economic performance around the world, including China, which is the largest soybean consumer and importer.
In any case, in its last weekly report, released last Thursday, the Buenos Aires exchange (BCBA) indicated that the Argentine soybean harvest reached 2.8% of the total area, with an average productivity of up to 1.48 tonnes per hectare at the moment. Despite still being at the beginning, the BCBA maintains its estimate for the country's production, at 25 million tonnes.
In addition, the BCBA does not rule out further updates to its crop number, since what was planted later (second soybean) is still going through key stages of development.
In Brazil, the advance of the soybean harvest, which reached 82.1% of the total last Thursday according to StoneX's monitoring, has shown excellent productivity, or even records, in a large part of the country.
Given this scenario, in its April review, StoneX considerably increased its estimate for Brazilian soybean production in 2022/23, which stood at 157.7 million tonnes, 3 million above the previous number.
Again, this higher national production comes even with the negative adjustment of the crop in Rio Grande do Sul, which dropped to 15 million tonnes (due to weather issues). On the other hand, as highlighted, the results in other producing states have been surprising, such as in the Midwest, in MATOPIPA (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Pará), in São Paulo, and Paraná. Furthermore, there were also positive adjustments to the planted area, which took Brazil's total to a record 44.17 million hectares.
Weekly intraday - May/23 (CME)
Source: CME. Design: StoneX.