August 25, 2008

Argentina crushed 3.45 million tonnes of soy in July, up 23 percent from the 3 million tonnes turned into soy oil and soymeal last year, according to the Agriculture Secretariat's latest data.

Oilseed processing bounced back in July after a strike and roadblocks thrown up by Argentine farmers in May and June to protest higher grain export taxes prevented a large amount of the new crop soy from making it to crushing facilities.

In July, processors squeezed 655,766 tonnes of soy oil out of the beans, up from 536,923 tonnes produced in July 2007.

Soymeal output in July totaled 2.7 million tonnes, up from 2.1 million tonnes a year earlier.

Meanwhile, as of August 1, the country's oilseed industry held soy stocks totaling 2.4 million tonnes, down 35 percent from the 3.7 million tones held at the same date in 2007, according to the Agriculture Secretariat.

Soyoil stocks totaled 434,917 tonnes, up from 229,953 a year earlier. Stocks of soymeal totaled 1,082,652 tons, up from 704,394 a year earlier.