May 12, 2006

Brazilian crusher's soy stocks depleted as farmers' protest continues

Soybean stocks ran out Thursday (May 11) during the peak soy export season at Sperafico Agroindustrial--a soy crusher in Mato Grosso--as protesting farmers successfully closed grain silos and blocked all farm commodity transit in the state, the company's commercial manager said.

"Soy stocks ran out today. We've now officially stopped crushing soybeans. We have nothing left in our storage facilities in Paranagua either," said Benecio de Souza, commercial manager at Sperafico Agroindustrial. Paranagua is Brazil's second busiest soy shipping port.

Protests by farmers in Mato Grosso have made deliveries of soybeans impossible to local soy-crushing facilities like Sperafico, a private company that crushes soybeans into soymeal and soyoil for local and international markets.

Sperafico is one of the largest soy crushers in Parana, but has a much smaller presence in Mato Grosso. The company has five soy crushing units in Brazil with more than 40,000 clients locally and worldwide and the capacity to crush over a million tonnes of soybeans annually.

Souza said he expected major international firms like Bunge (BG) and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) to run out of soy stocks this week, if not Thursday, in Mato Grosso because of the farmer blockade.