September 19, 2008

The Argentine government has stopped accepting new corn export declarations, as the calculated surplus from the 2007-08 crop has been sold out, a spokesman for agricultural trade office Oncca said Thursday (September 19, 2008). 

The move follows a warning from the government at the beginning of the month that the amount of corn available for export was running out.

The government had already approved the export of about 14 million tonnes of corn this year from a total 2007-08 crop of 20.5 million tonnes.

Domestic need for this year was pegged at 6 million tonnes.

Oncca, the country's grain trading authority, has not yet started accepting export declarations for the 2008-09 corn crop. Planting recently commenced, with production estimated at 19 million tonnes, according to the USDA.

Argentine grain prices were down across the board Thursday compared to a week ago at the Rosario Grain Exchange, in line with the CBOT and on news that old-crop corn exports are now closed.

Local corn prices followed Chicago lower on the week, but were also hurt by the closure of new exports from the 2007-08 crop.

Spot corn sold for ARS380 a tonne in Rosario Thursday, down from ARS410 a week ago.

April 2009 corn was not traded in Rosario, but the reference price fell to US$138 a tonne, down from US$150 a tonne last Thursday.