And synthetic rubber made from petro-chemicals was still in the future. Brazil had a virtual monopoly in the supply of natural rubber. An Englishman called Henry Wickham took some rubber tree seeds to Kew Gardens in London and from there to south east Asia. Trees were grown from the seeds and plantations developed. Since the 1970s, the Brazilian Government has been taking steps to encourage farmers to grow a wider range of crops instead of relying on one or two.
Soybean is one of the new crops encouraged.
By 1993, Brazil was one of the world's major producers and exporters. Look at the table . You can see the tremendous growth in soybean production during the l990s. Something like two-thirds of the crop, about 14 million tonnes, are exported. Look at table and note how, even in the 1990s, production varies significantly from year to year.