EU imports of US soybeans increase

Soybeans are the most important oilseed crop imported into the European Union, ahead of rapeseed, according to a Nov. 27 press release by the German oilseed association UFOP.

EU-27 soy imports in the first four and a-half months of the running marketing year amounted to nearly 4 million metric tons.

This was up around 75,000 tons on the same period in the 2022-’23 season.

Brazil and the U.S. remained the top suppliers with almost identical shares.

By mid-November, the EU had imported nearly 1.8 million tons of soybeans from the U.S., around 0.3 million tons more than in the year-earlier period.

In other words, the U.S. increased its share of total EU soy imports 6 percentage points to 44 percent.

On the other hand, volumes from Brazil nearly remained at the previous year’s level at just under 1.7 million tons.

By contrast, imports from Canada and Ukraine saw a significant decline.

Soybean meal is another important oilseed commodity imported by the EU.

According to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), import volumes fell marginally short of the previous year’s level.