February 11, 2008

 

Argentina's corn sales up 65 percent on-year

 

 

As of Feb. 8, Argentina had sold 14.15 million tonnes of 2006-07 corn for export, a 65-percent increase compared to 8.59 million tonnes for the same time last year for the 2005-06 corn, figures released Friday from the Agriculture Secretariat showed. 

 

Last week, the Agriculture Secretariat opened the corn export registry, which had been closed since June.

 

As of Feb. 7, Argentina had sold 2.2 million tonnes of 2007-08 corn, although information regarding the destination of those exports was not given.

 

Meanwhile, the country's 2007-08 wheat export commitments totaled 7.05 million tonnes as of Feb. 8.

 

The export registry for 2007-08 wheat was reopened last week, but no new export commitments have been reported by the government since the opening.

 

New wheat exports will be limited to 2 million tonnes and spread over the next five months, with a maximum of 400,000 tonnes shipped per month, the secretariat said.

 

Each company will be limited to declaring about 12,000 tonnes of wheat export commitments a day.

 

Old crop (2006-07) wheat sales totaled 9.3 million tonnes as of Feb. 8, according to the secretariat.

 

The country produced 14.6 million tonnes of wheat last year, meaning about 5 million tonnes would be available for local consumption.

 

Production this year is expected to hit 15.5 million tonnes, with 7 million tonnes already commited for export.