January 28, 2008

  

Argentina's 2006/2007 corn sales rises 62 percent 

 

 

As of Jan. 25, Argentina had sold 14 million tonnes of 2006-07 corn for export, the Agriculture Secretariat said Friday (January 28, 2008).

 

This was a 62-percent increase compared to the same time last year, when 8.6 million tonnes of 2005/2006 corn were sold by then, justifying the government's recent moves to curb exports.  

 

The reason for the increase in exports was not disclosed and may pertain to adjustments to previous figures.

 

In November 2006, the government froze the export registry in the face of soaring export declarations.

 

The Agriculture Secretariat announced the reopening of the corn export registry for 3 million tonnes in June of last year, but the quota was filled within a week.

 

No export commitments have been reported for the 2007-08 crop due to the registry closure.

 

Among Asian countries, Malaysia saw a drop of corn imports from Argentina from 1.5 million tonnes in 2005/2006 to 1.05 million tonnes in  2006/2007.

 

Other countries scaling back on their purchases were the Philippines, dropping from 200,000 tonnes to 135 ,000 tonnes and Indonesia from 265,000 tonnes to ,110,000 tonnes.

 

Most other nations saw an increase. Vietnam increased its Argentinean corn imports from 80,000 tonnes to 140,000 tonnes during the period while Thailand imported 5,000 tonnes from zero last year. 

 

South Korea and Japan, which did not buy Argentinean corn in 2005/2006, imported 370,000 tonnes and 250,000 tonnes respectively in 2006/2007.

 

Spain saw the most spectacular increase, rising from 75,000 tonnes on the 2005/2006 crop to 1.6 million tonnes for 2006/2007. Portugal increased its corn imports from Argentina four-fold while the UK imported 140,000 tonnes from nothing in 2005/2006.

 

Argentinean corn sales for 2005/06 and 2006/07 ('000 tonnes)