Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm — Most often when one thinks of South American soybeans, Brazil and Argentina spring to mind. After all, they are the number one and three soybean producers in the world. But Uruguay is among three other somewhat significant soybean growers on the continent.
On April 10, the United States Department of Agriculture projected the 2024/25 soybean harvests in Brazil at 169 million tonnes and 49 million in Argentina. Meanwhile, Uruguay was pegged at 3.10 million tonnes, behind Paraguay at 10.70 million and Bolivia at 3.70 million. Globally, the USDA ranked Uruguay at 11th in producing 0.73 per cent of the world’s soybeans.
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More than 3 million tonnes
The USDA attaché in Buenos Aires, in looking across the Rio de la Plata at Uruguay, forecast its soybean harvest to come in higher at 3.30 million tonnes and projected the 2025/26 crop to slip back to 3.10 million. With beginning stocks of 252,000 tonnes and a small amount of imports, total supply is to be 3.37 million.
The attaché placed planted and harvested soybean area at 1.30 million hectares, down from the 1.35 million estimated for 2024/25. Also, yields are to fall back to 2.38 tonnes per hectare from 2.45.
The Buenos Aires desk forecast exports at 2.90 million tonnes, versus three million in 2024/25. With total domestic consumption to be 280,000 tonnes, Uruguay’s ending stocks are drop to 192,000 tonnes from 252,000 this year.
