Argentina farmer soybean and corn sales continue to slow

Argentine farmer sales of soybeans and corn fell in the week ending September 11 amid limited demand from importers and poor crush margins,  government data released on Wednesday showed.

Weekly soybean sales for current crop soybeans totalled 515,100 mt, down by close to 185,000 mt from the previous seven-day period’s 696,800 mt.

Sales to exporters overtook sales to the domestic crush by 10,000 mt, clocking in at 262,900 mt.

Domestic crush margins remained poor during the week, settling at $6.75/mt compared to $6.25/mt on September 4.

Demand from exporters was also limited with prices on a FOB Up River basis hitting $342/mt on September 11, down from $347.25/mt on September 4.

New 2019/20 crop sales to exporters hit 208,500 mt, slipping by close to 60,000 mt on the week but were significantly higher on the same week last year when just 7,100 mt of 2018/19 crop had been contracted to exporters as buyers continued to lock in volume for next year.

So far this marketing year, 35.4 million mt of soybeans have been contracted out of a projected total crop of 56 million mt, equating to a clearance rate of 63%, up just one point on the week.

This compares with the 30.7 million mt contracted out of a drought-hit crop of 37 million mt by the same week last year.

Corn

In corn, total farmer sales came in at 1.1 million mt, down 130,000 mt week-on-week but higher than the 813,200 mt contracted in the same week last year.

Sales to exporters of the current crop totalled 483,200 mt, down by just over 120,000 mt from the 603,900 mt sold in the previous week.

Meanwhile, sales to domestic buyers overtook sales to exporters, hitting 589,800 mt as buyers sought to build up stock from the nation’s projected bumper crop.

Exporters also began to have problems sourcing larger vessels favoured by core importing nations in Asia, slowing the pace of exports from the country.

Total current crop sales now stand at 33.7 million mt out of a projected 2018/19 crop of 48 million mt compared to just 21.6 million mt by the same week last year amid a severe drought that caused the 2017/18 crop to total 32 million mt.