Brazilian soyabean supply insufficient for China's US replacement
China cannot rely on Brazil to make up any shortfall in soyabean imports if it imposes restrictions on or boycotts US products as part of the simmering trade war between the two nations. The South American country's soyabean harvest takes place earlier than in the US, while a domestic crushing demand of 43 million tonnes  leaves only 76 million tonnes for export, 21 million tonnes below than China needs. In addition, Brazil's political instability and infrastructure bottlenecks cannot be resolved in time for China to completely avoid purchasing US soyabean stocks.
Gustavo Oliveira writes that timing, huge demand and structural bottlenecks diminish Brazil’s reliability as a backup soybean supplier to China