March 26, 2008

Argentina's wheat export to remain unchanged despite registry closure

Argentina's 2007-08 wheat export commitments were unchanged at 7.05 million tonnes as of March 25, the Agriculture Secretariat said Tuesday (March 25, 2008).

On Feb. 28, Argentina extended the closure of the wheat export registry, preventing any shipments before April 8. Previously, the government had said it would allow wheat exports starting March 17.

Exporters must register export commitments with the government before being allowed to ship grains.

At the end of January, the Agriculture Secretariat announced that an additional 2 million tonnes - or 400,000 tonnes per month over the next five months - would be made available for export, but has repeatedly put off actually accepting export commitments.

The period for shipping wheat after making an export declaration was shortened to 15 days - with an additional 15-day grace period - from the 90 days previously allowed. In addition, each company is limited to declaring 12,000 tonnes of wheat export commitments a day.