Argentina soybean crush tumbles 9% in September as farmers limit sales

Argentina’s soybean crush for September came to 2.87 million mt, down 9% on the month but landing in line with market expectations, official data from the Agriculture Secretariat showed Friday.

The country crushed 2.87 million mt of soybeans in September, sharply down from 3.15 million mt in August and 22% below the crush volume for the same month last year.

The drop in bean processing was mostly due to lower availability of soybeans sent to domestic crushers, this is as Argentina sold at least 5.5 million mt of beans to the export market instead, thus limiting the availability for crushers.

The sharp drop in soybean crushed last month surprised local market participants as September was the month when a bumper volumes of soybeans were sold due to the implementation of the soy dollar that month. 

On a cumulative basis, the volume of soybeans crushed in the year to August amounted to 29.60 million mt, down 11% on the same period a year ago.

The output of downstream products fell as well, with soyoil down 8% on the month, landing at 551,384 mt in September, while soymeal also fell 9% on the month, coming at 2.05 million mt.