Hydrous ethanol prices in Brazil near seven-month high

The front-month CBOT soybean oil futures contract settled at 35.8 cents/lb Tuesday after reaching a more-than-two-year high of 35.99 cents/lb on Monday.

The last time the contract was so high was August 4, 2014, when it was 36.02 cents/lb.

According to Darrel Good, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, global interest in vegetable oils has pushed prices higher.

Export demand is expected to remain strong through the end of the year, especially as "there is also increasing chatter about the prospects for a strengthening La Nina episode and the potential for unfavorable growing season weather in South America," Good said in a Monday article.

If the South American crop is damaged, the US is a likely origin for soybean oil to cover the lost amount.

US soybean oil exports were 1.061 million mt in the 2015/16 marketing year, up 212,000 mt from the previous year. The USDA projects 1.020 million mt in the 2016/17 marketing year. So far, the US has committed 277,000 mt of soybean oil for exports in the current marketing year.

Soybean oil is the primary feedstock for US produced biodiesel.