Social Network Analysis on Agricultural International Trade: A Study on Soybean, Soybean Cake and Maize Exports

Abstract

The world agriculture market is highly competitive; hence, the use of new approaches to analyze it can provide new insights to understand the factors that determine its competitiveness. This paper aims to investigate the global trade of soybean, soybean cake, and maize. They are listed among the most important commodities worldwide. To do so, we collected 2019 exports of these items from FAO database and analyzed them using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) method. The results showed the following scenarios: Soybeans present high competition between Brazil and the US; China is a shift factor, being responsible for 67% of imports. Soybean cake is shown in the market to have a larger number of buyers; however, Argentina, Brazil, and the US are the main exporters. Brazil and Argentina compete more in European and Asian countries, while the US mostly supplies its neighbors Mexico and Canada. Maize demonstrated the same main exporter players as soybean cake—Brazil, Argentina and the US. Brazil and Argentina compete mainly in European and Asian markets, while the US mostly supplies its neighbors, with the exception of Japan.

Keywords

• international trade
• agriculture commodities
• grains
• oil seeds