Argentina sales of soybeans to exporters stall: Ag ministry data

Farmer sales of soybean in Argentina totalled 11.1 million mt by March 7, according to official data released this week, with exporters having bought 4.3 million mt of beans and crushers 6.8 million.

Those figures are up 1.7 million mt over the previous two weeks and were almost exclusively driven by domestic crusher buying, which rose from 5.1 million mt on February 21.

Argentina is undergoing what some analysts say is its worst drought in decades as the La Nina weather phenomenon has baked soybean crops in the world’s third biggest exporting nation.

Argentina exports around 8 million mt per year of soybeans, although some analysts expect that to fall sharply this year due to lower production.

Argentina’s export figures will be more closely watched this year following news reports that China is considering taxing soybean imports from the US – a move that will see them likely sourcing more beans from Latin America.

According to Argentina brokers Zeni, the figures mean that farmers have sold 27% of their expected production of 42 million mt forward – much higher than this time last year when farmers had sold 8.8 million mt (15.5%) out of a crop of 57.5 million mt.

Corn

In terms of corn, farmers had sold 8.5 million mt forward by March 7, up 5% on forward sales at this time of year and representing 25% of an expected crop of 34 million mt.

Exporters took 8 million mt, with industry taking 286,000 mt – broadly in line with last year’s figures, despite the crop size falling from 39 million mt to 34 million mt, the broker said.

Wheat showed a similar picture, with farmers having sold forward 11 million mt by March 7, which was 6% up on forward sales at this time of year on a similar crop size of 18 million mt.

Exporters took 8.9 million mt, with industry taking 2 million mt, again broadly in line with last year’s buying pattern.