Summary
This paper focuses on the role international corporations play in reallocating global water resources, with a particular focus on corporations trading Brazilian soy. The study couples high-resolution, company-specific trade data with hydrological and crop models to estimate the virtual water trade of the top 9 transnational corporations that trade Brazilian soy. It identifies 4429 virtual water flows connecting 1620 Brazilian municipalities with the top-10 soy importing countries and finds that the total virtual water flow increased from 43 billion m3 to 100 billion m3 between 2004 and 2018. The study finds that the largest soy traders displace on average twice as much virtual water as top-importing countries, excluding China. The findings highlight the importance of transnational corporations for achieving water stewardship and sustainable supply chains to support water resource security at municipal and international scales.