The soybean market in Italy

Soybean is a vegetable protein-rich legume that is used widely as a food for both humans and farm animals. In human nutrition it is often used as substitutes for meat, fish, cheese or eggs. The benefits of this food are to reduce constipation problems and normalize glycemic and cholesterol levels.

The main types of soybeans on the market are:

Soybeans Yellow: the most common one that is eaten in the form of burgers, tofu or sauces

Soybeans Black: used mainly in China

Soybeans Green: used for making soups, creams or sauces

As for the global soybean market, this had reached $125 110 million in the year 2020 and is expected to reach $164 940 million by the end of 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6 percent. The country producing and exporting the largest amount of soybeans is Brazil followed by the United States. In contrast, 30 percent of world soybean demand is required by the Chinese market.

Italy, compared to other European countries, leads in non-GMO soybean production. There has been a real boom in the sector in recent years: from the year 2018 to 2019 there has been a growth of 29% with a production increase of 50%. As reported by Istat data the hectares cultivated in Italy were 273 thousand with a production of over 1 million tons. In Italy the main region where soybeans are cultivated is Veneto with over 135 thousand hectares, followed by Friuli-Venezia Giulia with about 54 thousand hectares cultivated. This large use of soybeans is mainly due to the low production costs and high sales costs and to the fact that growing soybeans leads to disruption of the cereal succession and enrichment of the land.