Thailand's soybean imports are forecast to grow almost 6 percent this year, as edible oil consumption rose after a farm strike in Argentina hit soymeal supplies, a Thai industry official said on Friday.
Thailand's soymeal imports are likely to drop around 20 percent this year as prices spiral and more bean imports boost domestic production, Sethasan Sethakarun, president of the Soybean Oil Processors Association of Thailand, told Reuters. Thai soybean imports were expected to reach 1.65 million tonnes this year, he said.
"More soybean imports because the market for oil is increasing, we need more soyoil and meal imports from Argentina have not been consistent due to the strike," Sethakarun said on the sidelines of a grains industry meeting in Cambodia. Soybean prices soared this year after a farmers' strike in Argentina, the world's top supplier of soyoil and soymeal, hit exports and left crushers without stocks.
US soybeans stood at $12.10 per bushel in Asian trade on Friday, or nearly 27 percent off their July peak of $16.58, reaching a nearly 3-week low as rains moved through some of the driest areas of the US Midwest, giving a boost to late-developing crops. Thailand's soymeal imports would fall 18 to 20 percent from 1.9 million tonnes bought in 2007, Sethakarun said.
"There have been more soybean imports so the local meal production has increased, and the second reason is high prices have reduced demand." Thai meal consumption has registered a drop of 10 percent in the first 8 months of this year and the trend will continue, Sethakarun said. The Southeast Asian country consumed 2.9 million tonnes of soymeal in 2007.
Demand for more protein-rich beans has led to Brazilian soybeans winning market share in Thailand at the cost of cargoes from the United States. "The protein content of the Brazilian beans is higher than the US beans. That is because of land, climate and other things," Sethakarun said. "The price of Brazilian soybeans is cheaper during the harvest season." Thailand is likely to buy 70 percent of its soybeans from Brazil this year and the rest from the United States.
Last year, the ratio was 35 percent US beans, 15 percent Argentine and the balance Brazilian. The country is eyeing 600,000 tonnes of soybean imports in the last four months of the year. US grain exporters and Asian buyers are meeting in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap at a gathering hosted by the American Soybean Association, the US Grains Council and US Wheat Associates.