China remains biggest US soy importer

In the overview, the top 10 US export markets for wheat, corn, soybeans, and cotton, by volume (metric tons) are shown. For soybeans, China remains the biggest buyer of US soybeans with over 26 million metric tons in the period October to June 2016. This was however, almost 2 million tons less than in the same period in the year before. China’s huge appetite for US soybeans was fuelled by the rapid growth of agriculture in China. It is questioned whether this growth will be at a slower pace in the coming years, which will most probably be reflected in a reduced volume of soybeans in the coming years.

The EU-28 is the second largest buyer of US soybeans and imported a little bit more this year, compared to last year. Also Japan, Indonesia and Bangladesh imported more soybeans that a year earlier.

For corn, we see that Mexico is importing more US corn than a year earlier. This can be due to earlier statements about the difficulties in Mexican corn production, due to lower yield rates and declining planted area. In June 2016, Mexico imported over 1.2 million metric tons of US corn. In June 2015, this was ‘only’ over 921 thousand metric tons. For wheat imports, the biggest buyer is Japan, followed by Mexico and the Philippines.