- Title: Why does Brazil grow so much soy and eat so little?
- Date: 14th October 2024
- Summary: NAO ME TOQUE, RIO GRANDE DO SUL, BRAZIL (FILE - APRIL 3, 2024) (REUTERS) SOYBEAN FIELD BARN FULL OF SOYBEANS SOYBEAN MOUNTAIN SLIDING
- Embargoed: 28th October 2024 12:31
- Keywords: Brazil China agriculture consumers export soy
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, BRAZIL
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, BRAZIL
- Country: Brazil
- Topics: South America / Central America,Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA004106310102024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Brazil's foodie hub Sao Paulo may be best known for its prized cuts of grilled meat and lavish sushi spreads, but some upscale restaurants are featuring a novel star ingredient: soy.
The agricultural powerhouse is the world's top producer of soy, shipping over a million tons a week to China on average. But unlike in Asia and other markets where soy is synonymous with cheap everyday protein, Brazilians eat so little of it that it has become a pricey niche offering.
On their carefully curated social media pages, high-end chefs prepare tofu cubes decorated with edible flowers and edamame topping sticky rice wrapped in thinly sliced carrots. In Sao Paolo's supermarkets, Brazilians making minimum wage would need to fork over a full day's pay for just 250 grams of tofu.
Bolivians, Nigerians and Russians consume more soy on average than Brazilians, according to agriculture consultancy Agromeris. It found Brazil was the only major market for foods made with soybeans in decline.
Mass soy production began only in the 1970s in Brazil, after new science opened the door to farming the cash crop in the country's vast, sparsely populated interior.
Outside the Asian diaspora, Brazilians who heap brown and black beans on their rice every day still look askance at the exotic green beans - nearly all of which are grown to be exported to Asia and Europe to fatten up cattle, pigs, birds and fish.
Brazil is forecast to produce a record 170 million metric tons of soy in its next harvest, compared to 125 million metric tons grown in the United States, which it surpassed in 2020.
The boom has come with environmental costs. For decades, Brazil's expanding soy frontier has contributed to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado savanna.
About 98% of Brazil's soy is genetically modified organisms (GMO) to withstand the heavy use of herbicide on industrial-scale plantations, which has added to a stigma in the local market. So food companies offering tofu and soy milk to choosy Brazilians rely on expensive parallel farming of organic, non-GMO soybeans – or imported products from as far off as Japan – and prices are high.
Brazilian law does not prohibit human consumption of GMO soybeans. However, companies go to great lengths and pay a hefty premium to source traditional soy, which for many have become synonymous with organic and healthy ingredients.
In the high-volume, low-margin business of commercial farming, it is rare to find Brazilian producers betting on the non-GMO segment.
Where Brazilian companies have embraced traditional soy production, it often requires heavy investments.
Caramuru, the largest processor of the oilseed in central Mato Grosso state, deep in Brazil's agricultural heartland, has gone as far as building a separate plant for non-GMO soy.
Marcos de Melo, their agricultural inputs manager, said the parallel production was needed because the tolerance for "contamination" of GMO soybeans is below 0.1%.
However, Brazilians will not taste the final product coming off that dedicated Caramuru line. The company's non-GMO soymeal is destined for export to Europe to be used in animal feed.
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