The US-China trade war has been a boon for Brazil’s soybean farmers. But can they keep up with Chinese demand?
- US shipments of soybeans to China have halved since Beijing slapped a 25 per cent punitive duty on them in July
- Weather conditions threaten this year’s harvest as Brazil’s farmers aim to meet 30 per cent increase in demand from China, says head of trade body
There are winners and losers in any spat, and they are often not the parties at loggerheads.
Brazil’s soybean farmers, for example, have triumphed spectacularly in the US-China trade war. In fact, they’ve done so well they may become victims of their own success, according to the head of a Brazilian trade promotion agency.
After their shipments to China jumped by almost a third last year to fill the void left by soybean imported from the US, the South American growers may struggle to maintain the same supply, said Igor Brandao, chief of the agribusiness division at Apex-Brasil.
“The harvest for this year is expected to be smaller than last year. It is a matter of weather conditions, because the dry season is expected to be longer this year,” he said.
Brandao pledged that Brazil, the biggest supplier of soybeans to China, will do its best to increase production to cater to the demands of the world’s second-largest economy. The country became a key beneficiary of the trade war when tariffs on US soybeans made Chinese buyers look elsewhere to import the crop.