Bean King Brazil
Latin Trade, May, 2006 by Viviane Oliveira

The United States is about to lose its spot as the world's largest soy exporter, making way for a new king of the green mountain: Brazil, the world's second-largest producer. The trend comes as no surprise, as Brazilian soy has fast become the preferred choice in European and Chinese markets, even in less-than-optimal market conditions.

"Right now, a weak dollar is preventing Brazilian producers from growing even more," says Amelio Dall'Agnol, a researcher at Embrapa Soja, an agricultural research firm in Londrina. While the United States exported 28.9 million tons of soy during the 2001-2002 season, Brazil exported 15 million. That figure will jump by 11.1 million tons to hit 26.1 million during the 2005-2006 growing season.

One of the chief drivers of Brazil's success has been the high price of U.S. soy. "The trend is that if we keep prices where they are, the international market will react so that by the end of the decade, we will be the biggest producer and distributor of soy in the world," Dall'Agnol says.