July 4, 2012

Argentina's soy crushings likely down in coming months

Following the country's poor crop this year, Argentinean soy crushing may be sharply reduced in coming months, curtailing the country's soyoil and soymeal export supplies, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World forecast on Tuesday (July 3).

"For the full season March 2012-February 2013 we estimate Argentine soy crushings at a three-year-low of only 33.8 million tonnes, down four million from last season," Oil World said.

Argentina is the world's largest exporter of soymeal and soyoil and third largest soy exporter.

Harvesting of Argentina's drought-hit 2012 soy crop is now finishing and the country's government expects a harvest of 40.3 million tonnes this season, down from 48.9 million tonnes last year. Argentine soy crushings in May were already down 6.4% on year, Oil World stressed.

"This decline is going to continue in the months to come and underpin the prices of soy products in the world market," it said.