December 2, 2005

Argentina's October soy crush up 14 percent year-on-year

Argentina's soybean crush totalled 2,419,847 tonnes in October, up 14 percent from 2,122,414 a year earlier, the Agriculture Secretariat reported Thursday.

Analysts say crush will keep rising over the next couple of years as soybean production rises and crushers boost processing capacity to accompany the bigger harvests.

The 2004-05 harvest totalled a record 39 million tonnes, up from 33 million tonnes a year ago, according to the USDA. The USDA has pegged the 2005-06 crop at 40.5 million tonnes.

Aceitera General Deheza, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and other companies are spending upwards of US$900 million to build ports and boost daily crush capacity to as much as 160,000 tonnes by 2007. Daily capacity now totals 100,000 tonnes, according to the Rosario Cereals Exchange.

By the end of 2006, Argentina could be crushing more than 40 million tonnes of oilseed annually, according to an estimate by the Exchange's department of economic studies.

Argentina produced 457,110 tonnes of soyoil in October, up about 15 percent from the 397,097 tonnes crushed a year ago.

Soy pellet output in October totalled 1,896,355 tonnes, or 13.6 percent more than the 1,668,694 tonnes mashed a year earlier.