VIENNA, AUSTRIA — The EU’s soybean production is rebounding from drought issues in the 2020-21 marketing year and seeing relatively flat demand for imports, according to a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The soybean planted area in the 2021-22 marketing year is forecast to increase 3% to 1.04 million hectares and for the second year in a row exceed one million hectares. The increase in planted area is driven by a combination of higher prices and demand for GM-free soybeans. While the soybean harvest will not be completed before the fall of 2021, the USDA anticipates EU soybean production in the 2021-22 marketing year to jump 10% compared to the previous year to 2.91 million tonnes.

EU imports of soybean in the 2021-22 marketing year are expected to remain stable at 14.4 million tonnes compared to the previous year but remain below the 2019-20 marketing year level of 15.15 million tonnes.

The EU’s soybean production was challenged with drought issues in the 2020-21 marketing year slipping to 2.65 million tonnes, which compared with 2.7 million tonnes in the previous marketing year. 

The USDA expects soybean exports to decrease from a high of 19.5 million tonnes in the 2019-20 marketing year to 18.9 million tonnes in the following marketing year. High prices of soybeans have negatively impacted crush margins. Lower crush margins are expected in the 2020-21 marketing year as meal price did not rise as high as soybean prices.