Argentina imposes two day embargo on soy meal, soy oil exports

Argentina’s Agriculture Ministry has temporarily suspended a reporting mechanism which tracks exports for soy oil, soy meal, pellets and other products containing soy, effectively curtailing exports of those products for two days.

The decision was implemented through resolution 249/2018 following the Economy Ministry’s decision to halt its rolling programme of export tax cuts on soymeal and soyoil for six months.

The suspension will be in place until August 16, the ministry said as it seeks to avoid massive sales ahead of the publication of the decree suspending the gradual reduction of duties on soy meal and soy oil exports, scheduled for Wednesday.

Argentina’s agriculture minister, Luis Miguel Etchevehere, said that the decision to halt the reduction of duties for these products will put duties paid by soyoil and soymeal exporters to those paid by soybean exporters.

Duties on soybean exports currently stand at 26% while soy oil and soy meal exports will continue to pay a duty of 23%.

Due to the gradual reduction of duties on soybean exports both duties are scheduled to reach 23% in February next year.

Differences in the export duties paid by soybean and its derivates date back to 1990 with Etchevehere also highlighting that the government’s decision had been positively received by the country’s main rural institutes.

The implementation of differentiated export duties had been used by the government to foster local soybean crushing production with different level of export duties part of the arguments used by the EU and the US to open anti-dumping investigations against Argentine biodiesel and soyoil exports.