Argentina sets new requirements for corn exports

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the new provisions, shipments of operations with physical stocks of grain and designated vessels with estimated date of arrival will be authorized, in order to prioritize companies with agreed sales.

Producers opposed the new administrative requirements, saying that in practice they will slow down future shipments, especially those that have not yet been contracted.

“To continue intervening and bureaucratizing the markets is a very bad indication that causes distrust among producers,” said on Tuesday the president of the Argentine Rural Society Nicolás Pino, which comprises the agricultural employers’ associations.

“We have been experiencing this since April with meat and now with corn. Our country needs us all to be able to work freely and produce knowing that we will be able to sell,” Pino said on Twitter.

Argentina is the 3rd largest exporter of corn and the world’s leading supplier of soybean meal and oil. In 2020 corn exports reached 37.03 million tons for US$6.023 billion. Argentina produced 50 million tons of corn in 2020.

Its economy is plagued by inflation that accumulated 32.3% between January and August driven by a sharp increase in domestic food prices that the government is trying to contain.

This week the resolution to reopen meat exports to China is expected to be published, a measure demanded by agricultural and industrial associations. Meat exports were suspended last May to mitigate price hikes in the domestic market, which soared 65% in a year and a half of the pandemic.

Restrictions on meat exports will remain in place for seven cuts considered basic in the Argentine diet. Argentina is the world’s 4th largest beef exporter.

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