November 24, 2009
Argentina October soy, sunseed crush down on-year
Argentina's exporters continue to focus on turning the small 2008-09 soy crop into meal and oil rather than shipping raw beans, according to the latest crush figures from the oilseed and grain exporter chamber known as CIARA-CEC.
During the first ten months of the year, 24,879,455 tonnes of soy were crushed, down from 26,774,451 a year ago, according to CIARA-CEC.
In October, crushers turned 2,106,367 tonnes of soy into oil and meal, down from 2,759,222 a year earlier.
Meanwhile, soy exports during the first nine months of the year totalled 4,331,986 tonnes, down from 10,410,496 tonnes a year earlier, according to the latest data from agricultural health and sanitation service, Senasa.
That contrasts with soymeal and oil exports, which were actually up on the year despite the smaller crop.
Soymeal exports during the first nine months of the year totalled 10,439,843 tonnes, up from 9,537,960 tonnes a year earlier. Soyoil exports for the first nine months rose to 2,481,749 tonnes from 2,217,194 tonnes a year earlier.
Argentina leads the world in soymeal and soyoil exports, and ranks third in soy exports.
Drought battered the 2008-09 crop, cutting production by about a third from the crop's potential. According to the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange, soy output from the 2008-09 season plunged to 32 million tonnes from 46 million tonnes a year earlier.
Argentina also crushed 3,027,047 tonnes of sunflower seeds from January to October, down from 3,721,600 tonnes a year earlier.
The 2008-09 sunseed crop suffered from drought, cutting production to 3 million tonnes from 4.65 million tonnes a year earlier.
Sunseed-oil shipments during the first nine months of the year totalled 448,899 tonnes, down from 577,208 tonnes a year earlier, according to Senasa.
The October sunseed crush came in at 255,244 tonnes, down from 272,599 tonnes a year earlier.
Argentina is the world's largest exporter of sunflower-seed oil.
