Soy nutrition generated US$ 16,2 billion in the 2022-23 harvest

The Kynetec consultancy found that the market for soy nutrition products grew from around US$7,8 billion in the 2019-20 harvest to close to US$16,2 billion in the 2022-23 cycle (+110%). The survey is part of the FarmTrak study, exclusive to the company, and analyzed the segments of soil improvers and conditioners, base fertilizer, top dressing, inoculants, biostimulants and seed and foliar fertilizers.

In comparison to the 2021-22 harvest, when transactions involving these products exceeded US$ 12 billion, the increase was 30%. “Investments have increased as well as target treatment areas”, summarizes Giovanni Coser, plant nutrition specialist at Kynetec.

“Attentive to new technologies, always in search of productivity, the soybean farmer adopts new products and other innovative nutritional tools”, he continues. According to Coser, in the 2019-20 harvest, the first in the FarmTrak Nutrition historical series, the farmer carried out an average of 6,7 treatments, a number that rose to 7,6 treatments in the recently released study.

According to the Kynetec specialist, soil fertilizers, used in planting or covering, maintain a historical lead in the soybean nutrition market: more than 80% share or approximately US$ 12,9 billion. The performance of the product category, he highlights, increased by more than 100% compared to the 2019-20 harvest (US$6,392 billion).

Giovanni Coser also clarifies that, together, soil improvers and conditioners, and seed and foliar fertilization, including biostimulants, in addition to inoculants, accounted for 19% of the result of the market for inputs for oilseed nutrition in the 2022-23 cycle, around US$3 billion.

By product category, the segment formed by foliar fertilizers and seed treatment reached US$ 1,07 billion, an increase of 35% over 2021-22 (US$ 695 million). Sales for foliar nutrition were US$730 million (+34%); for seed treatment, US$ 115 million (+27%). Biostimulants, in turn, generated US$ 222 million (+43%).

Data clippings on soil, biostimulants and inoculants

Developments from FarmTrak Nutrition 2022-23 brought to light a representative increase, specifically, in the performance of soil fertilizers MAP (monoammonium phosphate) and simple superphosphate, used in the planting phase. Together, highlights Kynetec, these products generated around R$3,1 billion, an increase of 12% compared to previous research, and totaled 30% of the volume of inputs for soy nutrition applied during planting.

“With an average adoption of 24%, the MAP formula showed advances in adoption mainly in the Central regions, 31% and Central-North, 41%. In these, there was at least one application of MAP”, highlights Coser.

Regarding biostimulants, another important statement from Kynetec showed growth of 38% compared to the 2019/20 harvest (28%). “We found that today 39% of the total soybean area used some technology aimed at biostimulating the crop”, summarizes Coser.

The Kynetec study also revealed a relevant evolutionary scenario for inoculants in the historical series. These products have Bradyrhizobium as their main active organism, a genus of soil bacteria, and have achieved 83% adoption in the area, as noted by Coser. “Inoculation associated with the Azospirillum bacteria also increased, with 40% adoption in the area and a 70% jump, compared to the 23% recorded in the 2019-20 harvest”, he concludes.

According to the executive director of Kynetec for Latin America, André Dias, the preparation of FarmTrak Soy Nutrition 2022-23 is anchored in 2,4 personal interviews with soybean farmers, captured in almost 670 cities on the oilseed agricultural frontier. According to Dias, the company has already started developing the same study throughout the 2023-24 harvest.