The Growth of the Soybean Frontier in South America: The Case of Brazil and Argentina

Abstract

In the past 50 years, South America has emerged as the dominant world producer of soybeans, a crop of no significance in the region before the middle of the 20th century. As of the crop year 2019/2020, Brazil and Argentina produced 176 million tons which is over half of all world production and these two countries alone will also account for 57 per cent of all Soybeans exported in international trade. How this new agricultural product evolved in these two principal regional producers is the aim of this study. Here we attempt to examine the historical evolution of soybean production in Brazil and Argentina and try to show the unique patterns of production in each of the two crucial states.

Soy Expansion, Environment, and Human Development: An Analysis across Brazilian Municipalities

“…In addition, CEPEA [32] estimates that the soybean chain accounted for 2.2% of the national GDP in 2017. The area cultivated with soybeans in Brazil exceeds the area of Germany in size, and the country has solidified itself as the largest producer and exporter of soybeans in the world [33].…”

Techno-economic Evolution of Soybean Production in Brazil and Argentina

“…We present here, therefore, an analysis little or practically absent in the literature considering the comparative and historical territorial element in this work. Different studies allow the analysis of competitiveness or cost of soy production in territories between countries (Meade et al, 2016), but do not explore their comparison (Costa & Puricelli, 2009;Klein & Luna, 2021); others, however, do not advance to territorial analysis or do not emphasize the longitudinal (historical) aspect. Practically no study associates institutional aspects with the parameters of competitiveness or productivity, as explored here.…”