Brazil Corn-to-Soy Switch Foreshadows Record Glut: Commodities

The crash in corn prices is spilling over into soybeans. As a result, Brazil will grow more of the higher-value oilseed, helping push global markets into a record glut and replacing the U.S. as the top producer.

Soybean farmers in the largest exporting nation plan to sow a second crop in a Jamaica-sized area in the off-season rather than rotate to corn, as they traditionally do, after corn lost 42 percent in a year. That’s enough to produce a record surplus of the legume used in everything from tofu to salad dressing and sold in Japanese restaurants as edamame beans.