Prior to the January supply and demand report being released by the United States Department of Agriculture, its attachés in Argentina and Brazil issued their respective reports on oilseed production for 2025/26.
Brazil surpassed the U.S. as the world’s top beef producer last year, according to market estimates, after the South American country beat output forecasts by hundreds of thousands of tons, easing a global supply squeeze and helping limit a surge in meat prices.
Soybean shipments from Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter of the oilseed, hit a record of 108.68 million metric tons in 2025, data from shipping agency Cargonave published on Monday showed.
A lobby group for Brazilian grain trading and crushing firms has told farming state Mato Grosso that it and many of its members are quitting a nearly 20-year-old pact protecting the Amazon basin from deforestation driven by soy farming.
Some of the world’s largest soybean traders are preparing to break their agreement to curb deforestation of the Amazon rainforest to preserve tax benefits in Brazil’s top farm state, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
China imported no soybeans from the United States for a third straight month in November, as buyers turned to South American supplies amid fears of a shortfall if the trade war with Washington dragged on.
Although there’s a debate over the size of the South American soybean crop, there’s little doubt that it will be an enormous one, said consultant Michael Cordonnier of Soybean and Corn Advisor in Hinsdale, Ill.
Brazil’s Conab said the country will reap a record soybean crop of 177.6 million tons in the 2025/2026 harvest year, according to data released on Thursday.