Soy-Based Beverages in Latin America

Abstract

Soy is a relatively new crop in the region, despite the fact that Argentina and Brazil are now one of the largest world exporters of soy beans. Both countries began planting soy seeds during the first decade of the 20th century. Brazil’s soy bean production had reached 100,000 metric tonnes in 1954, and ten times as much in 1969, and again by 1975, when it reached 10 million tonnes.

This case study was developed by Alfredo Behrens, professor of global leadership at Faculdade FIA, São Paulo. I am very grateful to my colleagues at FIA for their input. I am also grateful to the team of journalists with Epoca Negócios for following up my research with interviews at AdeS, and its founder in Buenos Aires, and for making available to the public the results of those interviews (Mautone, 2009). Responsibility for this case study, however, remains exclusively mine.