In Marketing Year (MY) 2013/14 (Calendar Year 2014), the United States became the largest exporter of soybeans to Vietnam, surpassing Brazil.  U.S. soybean exports to Vietnam were 698 thousand metric tons (TMT), an increase of 26 percent from the previous year.  In MY 2014/15, U.S. soybean exports are expected to reach about 750 TMT as Vietnam’s domestic crushing increases.  In MY 2013/14, total soybean meal (SBM) imports were 3.64 million metric tons (MMT), a 14 percent increase over the previous year due to increasing demand from animal and aquaculture feed industries.  This sector continues to develop and Post forecasts 2015 and 2016 SBM imports to slightly increase, to 3.75 MMT and 3.85 MMT, respectively.

Vietnam’s oilseed production continues to fall well below demand from the food industry and the livestock and aquaculture feed sectors due to low yield and strong competition from other field crops, such as corn.  This competition will get even fiercer in the future as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has approved the first corn biotech events for commercial cultivation.

This will further reduce the competiveness of soybean cultivation as per hectare revenue for the new biotech corn varieties will also exceed revenue from soybean cultivation.      

Total imports of soybeans in 2014 were 1.56 MMT, an increase of 21 percent over the previous year due to rising demand from the two soybean crushing facilities and from the food and feed industries.  In MY 2013/14, the United States became the largest exporter of soybeans to Vietnam, surpassing Brazil, capturing a 45 percent market share

In MY 2013/14, Vietnam imported about 3.64 MMT of SBM, an increase of 14 percent over the previous year due to increasing demand for protein feed.  In 2014, U.S. SBM (mostly soy flour) exports were 368 TMT, a drop of 2.5 percent from the year before (378 TMT).  U.S. soy flour exports to Vietnam have increased significantly over the past three years due to falling soy flour tariffs.  In 2014, Vietnam’s soy flour imports reached a record level at 367 TMT due to rising demand from both feed and food processing industries, and in part, due to the lower import duty for soybean flour. Post projects soy flour imports will continue to increase in 2015 and in coming years as demand continues to grow reflecting population growth and rising incomes, as well as a growing food industry. 

Vietnam continues to rely heavily on imported crude and refined vegetable oils to meet consumer demand, although domestically-produced crude soybean oil has been available in the country since 2011.  In 2014, Vietnam produced about 235 TMT of crude soy oil from commercial crushing facilities, but continued to import an estimated 812 TMT of crude and refined vegetable oils to meet local consumption and regional export demand.  In 2014, refined vegetable oil imports were 723 TMT, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year, and crude vegetable oil imports increased 17 percent. Refined vegetable oil imports accounted for 89 percent of total imported vegetable oils as local oil producers continue to enjoy some protection from the Government’s safeguard import tariff against Malaysia and Indonesia, which is 4 percent during the period May 2014-May 2015, and falls to 3 percent in the period May 2015-May 2016.  Post forecasts that total vegetable oil imports in 2015 will remain in the 820-830 TMT range.  Vietnam’s exports of all types of vegetable/animal oil and fats skyrocketed in 2014 reaching an estimated 183 TMT, of which crude soy oil accounted for 49 percent, while refined soy oil exports were negligible, and palm and other vegetable/animal oil and fats accounted for 51 percent.  Post estimates soy oil exports at 91 TMT and 100 TMT in MY 2014/15 and MY2015/16, respectively.