Soybean report details US and Brazil production, marketing and exports

Soybeans and their products (soybean meal and soybean oil) are the most traded agricultural products, accounting for nearly 9 percent of total global agricultural trade.
New report on Brazilian and U.S. soybean production, marketing costs, and export competitiveness from USDA Economic Research Service describes the factors that affect production, marketing costs, and export competitiveness in the world’s leading soybean exporters, the United States and Brazil. This study compares differences in farm-level production costs and returns for soybeans in each country’s most productive growing regions for the U.S. and Brazil market years 2017/18 to 2021/22.
Here are some of the key findings from the report.
There are differences in production costs between the United States and Brazil, in part due to Brazil’s greater reliance on custom services to provide equipment and labor for field work, as opposed to farm-owned machinery in the United States. It reflects the Land costs were also high in the United States. Overall, Brazil had lower allocated overhead costs than the United States.

The average national revenue per bushel above operating costs for soybeans was highest in the United States in 2021/22, exceeding Brazil’s revenue by 16.4 percent.

U.S. Heartland was the lowest cost soybean exporter. Brazil’s Paraná state was the next lowest-cost exporter, primarily due to its location near ports and low domestic transportation costs. Brazil’s Mato Grosso state is competitive with the United States in soybean exports despite high inland transportation costs due to low soybean production costs.

Improved land transportation in central Brazil to provide access to northern ports has lowered truck rates, resulting in cost savings of $28 per tonne and increasing competition for Brazil’s Mato Grosso. Power has further improved.

Read the full report to learn more. at https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details?pubid=108175.