May 12, 2008
Argentina's grain exports slows sharply as strike deepens
The flow of corn and soy to Argentina's export ports slowed to a trickle Friday as striking farmers blocked trucks from entering ports to prevent sales abroad.
Just 176 grain trucks reached the riverside grain export complexes in Rosario on Friday, compared with over 4,000 on the same date last year.
Farmers announced a strike of at least eight days Wednesday, after a month of fruitless talks with the government over a tax hike on soy exports.
The strikers are focusing on shutting down grain exports and have vowed not to cause domestic food shortages.
Trade at the nation's grain exchanges has been shut down since Thursday.
Just 4,200 cattle were sent Friday to the nation's principal beef market, Liniers, less than half the normal flow for a Friday, local daily La Nacion reported.
Farmers have set up about 200 roadside protests across the country and have cut transit in some areas, according a report in a local daily.
In the town of Gualeguaychu, which became a flash point for the roadblocks in March, farm groups have declared that the transport of all goods destined for international trade would be blocked. The town lies on the key highway carrying trade between Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
The three-week strike launched in March was suspended throughout April to provide for negotiations with the government, but the failure to reach agreement on the export tax resulted in the collapse of talks.
Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez said Tuesday that the sliding-scale tax would not be abandoned and noted only that some modifications were being considered to facilitate futures trading.
Farmers are set to convene on May 15 to consider the next steps to be taken, but leaders have vowed to stand firm on the export tax. The government has so far refused to budge on the issue.
Argentina sold 10.98 million tonnes of 2007-08 corn as of May 2, up from 10.65 million tonnes a week earlier, the Agriculture Secretariat said Friday.
