Russia Soybean insights

The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance announced: "In 2024, Russia exported over 4.7 million tons of food products to China. From the beginning of 2025 to now, 2.9 million tons have been exported to China, surpassing the same period in 2024. Currently, China is among the top five importers of Russian food products. Exported products are concentrated in soybeans, rapeseed, flaxseed, and barley." The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance pointed out that currently, 22 types of agricultural products are approved to enter the Chinese market. Both parties are currently cooperating on the entry of winter wheat, barley, rapeseed, as well as millet, sorghum, small lentils, chickpeas, edible bean meal, feed for commercial livestock, pork and poultry products, beef, and dairy products from all over Russia. The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance stated that from the beginning of the year to now, Russia has cumulatively exported 879,000 tons of poultry meat and by-products, 24,900 tons of pork, 21,900 tons of pork by-products, 13,300 tons of beef, 3,100 tons of beef by-products, 4,900 tons of dairy products, 494,100 tons of fish products, and 596,400 tons of feed and feed additives to China. Russia imports approximately 633,000 tons of fruit and vegetable products from China each year. So far, the import volume of Chinese fruits and vegetables has increased by 46%, reaching 671,500 tons. The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance pointed out that during the official visit of the Russian President to China, the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance and the General Administration of Customs of China signed an agreement protocol to expand bilateral trade cooperation on September 2.

Reports indicate that Russia is the largest exporter of soybean oil to China in 2024. News shows that China imported a total of approximately 10.9 million tons of soybean oil in 2024, with a total value of nearly 7.3 billion U.S. dollars. On March 18, the Russian Agricultural Export Center informed the satellite news agency that according to preliminary statistics, in 2024, Russia exported over 8.3 million tons of agricultural products to China, with a total export value of approximately 7.4 billion U.S. dollars. Among the agricultural products exported from Russia to China, the largest export volume was rapeseed oil (13%), followed by barley (10%), and then sunflower oil and peas (each 8%), and soybeans (7%). China has become the main importer of Russian agricultural products in 2024, maintaining this position for two consecutive years.

Production, export, and consumption of this product have increased. From 2021 to 2024, Russia managed to almost completely reduce the import of vegetable meal and increase its export. This happened due to a serious increase in the areas under oilseeds and the expansion of processing capacities in the oil and fat industry. According to operational data from OleoScope, the import of all types of meal over the specified period decreased by 94% — from 800 thousand to 52 thousand tons by the end of last year. Moreover, the import of sunflower meal has completely ceased. By the end of 2024, Russia did not purchase this product on the foreign market, as well as flaxseed and rapeseed meal. The import of soybean meal decreased 100 times — from 662 thousand to 6 thousand tons by the end of last year, while the import of rapeseed meal decreased 2.5 times — from 112 thousand to 45 thousand tons by the end of last year. The production of vegetable meal from 2021 to 2024 showed an increase of ...