USDA-GAIN Report AR2022-003 released on February 28th projected the 2022 soybean harvest for Argentina.  It is estimated that the 2021-2022 harvest of 1,505 million bushels will be obtained from 39.5 million acres.  The projected 7.6 percent reduction in yield to 38 bushels per acre as compared to the previous season will result in a 44 percent decline in exports to 110,000 million bushels with implication for world prices in coming months.

The regional drought will reduce the 2021/2022 harvest in Brazil by seven percent to 4,610 million bushels.  Paraguay was more severely affected with a 37 percent reduction of the harvest to 165 million bushels.  Collectively the three nations represent 50 percent of World production of soybeans.

The shortfall from Central America will be exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.  This nation is the World’s major producer of sunflower seed and is responsible for 95 percent of world trade in both seed and oil.  The prospect of disruption in both production and shipping has raised the prices of all vegetable proteins.  On March 1st, soybeans closed at 1,705 cents per bushel for March delivery, up 61 cents per bushel.  Soybean meal was up $1.80 per ton to $464 per ton.  It is estimated that these increases would add 2.1 cents per dozen to the cost of egg production.