USDA raises soybean oil export projections

USDA raises soybean oil export projections

Houston, 9 March (Argus) — The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast higher US soybean oil exports in 2021-22 amid concerns of tighter edible oil supply in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

Soybean oil export projections for 2021-22 rose by 14pc to 1.6bn lbs from last month's outlook as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in reduced trading activity for sunflower oil. Ukraine is a top exporter of sunflower oil and if trading activity continues to drop in the region, other edible oils such as soy oil will be in high demand.

Import projections for 2021-22 remained unchanged at 450mn lbs, with US export and import estimates for 2020-21 unchanged at 1.7bn lbs and 302mn lbs, respectively.

The 2021-2022 soybean oil production forecast was unchanged at 26.2bn lbs, according to USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report. The USDA kept its estimate for both 2020-21 and 2021-22 soybean oil ending stocks steady at 2.1bn lbs.

Soybean production expectations for 2020-21 and 2021-22 remained unchanged along with the import forecasts. Soybean export projections for 2021-22 rose by 2pc to 2.1bn bushels.

Estimates of soybean ending stocks for 2021-22 decreased by 12pc to 285mn bushels.