Paraguay’s APS Opens 2026/27 Soybean Campaign With Focus on Competitiveness

Paraguay’s soybean producers have opened the 2026/27 campaign under a familiar but increasingly demanding question: how can the sector remain competitive as costs, markets and production requirements shift? The Association of Soybean, Oilseed and Cereal Producers of Paraguay, known as APS, launched the campaign at the fourth Siembra Paraguay event in J. Eulogio Estigarribia, Caaguazú.

President Santiago Peña, APS president Lindemar Cesca, government officials, producers and companies linked to the agricultural chain attended the event. The launch took place as producers confronted international price pressure, cost movements, exchange-rate volatility and weather conditions. Destination markets are also demanding higher standards for quality and sustainability.

APS said the sector needs conditions that support competitiveness, predictability and sustainability. Its agenda includes legal stability, rural security, infrastructure, logistics, access to finance and industrialization. The organization also emphasized innovation, research, biotechnology and new technologies as tools for increasing productivity.

The campaign opening coincided with APS’s 27th anniversary and highlighted the scale of the sector’s transformation. Soybeans covered 1.2 million hectares in the 1999/2000 campaign, producing 2.91 million tonnes at an average yield of 2,426 kilograms per hectare. In 2025/26, planted area reached 3.407 million hectares, while estimated production climbed to a record 11.5 million tonnes, with average national yields of 3,374 kilograms per hectare.

At the event, APS also defended farmers’ freedom to choose the technologies and varieties they use. “We want more varieties, more competition and more options,” the organization said, while criticizing monopolies that could constrain production or limit farmers’ choices.

“

We want more varieties, more competition and more options.