Social Network Analysis on Agricultural International Trade: A study on Soybean, Soybean cake and Maize exports

The agricultural international market is highly competitive and the use of new approaches to analyze it can provide interesting insights to understand the factors that determine its competitiveness. We conducted a study about Soybean, Soybean Cake, and Maize exports - main global commodities - to understand the trading behavior. To do so, we collected the exports by country in 2019 in FAOSTAT database and analyzed them using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The results showed three scenarios: (i) Soybeans - presents high competition between Brazil and the US. The two countries compete in practically all consumer countries. China is a shift factor, responsible for 67% of imports and having a closer relationship with Brazil; (ii) Soybean cake (meal), the market has a larger number of importers, but with the dominance of Argentina, Brazil, and the US. In the number of connections, Argentina has an advantage with 35 nodes while Brazil and the US have 20 and 21 nodes, respectively. The data also shows that Brazil and Argentina compete more in Europe and Asia, while the US mostly supplies its neighbors, Mexico and Canada; and (iii) Maize - Brazil, Argentina, and the US have similarities in exports volume, with an advantage of a more diverse market for Brazil and Argentina over the US (33, 28 and 17 nodes, respectively). Brazil’s and Argentina’s compete mainly in European and Asian markets, while the US mostly supplies its neighbors, except for Japan.