CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures fell on Friday after the US Department of Agriculture reported higher-than-expected global stockpiles, mainly in South America, traders said.

CBOT May soybeans settled 12-1/4 cents lower at $14.03 per bushel.

CBOT May soymeal ended $5.60 lower at $401.20 per short ton, while CBOT May soyoil lost 0.53 cents to end at 52.85 cents per pound, while the most-active July contract lost 0.48 cents per pound to 50.93 per pound.

For the week, CBOT’s most-active soybeans closed nearly unchanged, adding just 1 cent. In its monthly global supply and demand report, the USDA pegged global soybean stocks at 86.87 million tonnes, compared to the trade’s estimate of 83.52 million tonnes, up primarily on an increase in Brazil’s 2020/2021 crop to 136 million tonnes and Argentina’s 2020/2021 crop to 47.5 million tonnes.

Argentine farmers are shrugging off high soy prices and hanging on to all the beans they can this season in a bid to avoid exposure to the country’s anemic peso currency, even as rival growers in Brazil and the United States rush to sell.