Brazil accounted for over half of China’s soybean imports in the period from January to July of this year with the sale of 20.9 million tons of soybean, or year-on-year growth of 11.5 percent, according to Chinese customs data.

In the first seven months of the year, China, the world’s largest importer of soybeans, bought 41.7 million tons of soybeans from several suppliers, which was a 20 percent increase on the same period of 2013.

In July, Chinese soybean imports totalled 7.5 million tons, of which more than 5 million tons were from Brazil, where strong demand from China has helped it reach record exports in 2014.

The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (ABIOV) this week revised its forecast for soy exports – beans, meal and oil – upwards from 44 million to 45 million tons.

Large amounts of Brazilian soy are expected to arrive in China in August based on Brazilian export records of shipments of 27.5 million tons from January to July.