Argentina’s 2020/21 soy sales reach 27.3 million tons, government says

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina’s farmers have sold 27.3 million tons of the recently harvested 2020/21 soy crop, the country’s Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday in a report with data updated through August 11. The pace of sales is still below what was recorded in the same period last year, when 29.4 million tons were sold, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Argentina’s 2020/21 soy harvest in June closed with an output of 43.5 million tons, according to the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange. The figure represents a drop from the 2019/20 season’s 49 million tons.

Soy is a major source of dollars raised by Argentina from exports, needed to renew the country’s central bank’s foreign currency reserves, battered by a 3-year recession exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Ministry said 2020/21 corn sales reached 37.2 million tons, some 3 million more than at the same time last year.

According to the grain exchange, Argentina’s corn harvest, estimated at 48 million tons, has now reached approximately 95%.