EU-27 soy supply is expected to increase further in the 2024/2025 marketing season.
The main reason for the anticipated larger 2024 harvest volume is the larger area sown, whereas yields are seen to decline slightly.
The soybean output within the European Union more than tripled over the past 10 years. The EU Commission expects the soybean harvest this year to amount to just less than 3 million tonnes, which translates to a full 6% increase on 2023. In other words, the European Union is set to achieve the biggest soybean harvest on record.
Italy remains the largest EU producer with 1 million tonnes currently forecast. However, this is 0.9% short of the previous year’s volume.
France, the second largest EU supplier, is also expected to experience a marginal decline of 0.5% to 384.000 tonnes.
In contrast, the Commission expects other member states’ soy supply to significantly exceed the previous year’s level this year.
Romania is forecast to harvest 371,000 tonnes, just under 24% more than in 2023. Production in Croatia and Hungary is forecast to reach 258,000 tonnes and 182,000 tonnes respectively, which translates to increases of 26.5% and 2.8% respectively.
Austria will probably harvest 293,000 tonnes, around 8.5% more. The EU Commission also expects a year-on-year rise in soybean harvest for Germany in 2023, specifically by 10.1% to 142,000 tonnes.
Investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft suggest that the main reason for the overall increase in soy supply in the EU-27 is an expansion in soy area by 67,000 hectares to around 1 million hectares. This would be the second largest soybean area in the EU-27. According to the Commission’s latest estimate, yields are likely to remain just below the previous year’s level.