Argentine govt works with crushers to pave way for US soy: agency

Argentina’s national food health and quality service Senasa is working with local industry to fulfil regulatory requirements to allow them to import soybeans from the US, the agency’s President Luis Negri told Agricensus.

As it has been more than 20 years since Argentina imported US soybeans in bulk, current sanitary regulations would not allow the arrival of bulk ships carrying soybean from the US

Negri said there are two issues to solve that would allow crushers to import soybeans and export the soymeal and soyoil to other markets.

“The first issue is that we need to update the sanitary protocols between Argentina and the US," he said

"The second issue is we need to find out what to do with the transgenics that are approved in the US, but that are not currently approved in Argentina and in other markets that will receive soymeal and soyoil made from US soybean,” he added.

Negri said Senasa has already defined technical teams to focus on these two issues, which would pave the way for the arrival of US soybeans later in the year.

Last week, buyers in Argentina purchased four cargoes of US soybeans, according to the USDA, as they scramble to buy enough beans to keep crushing rates high in the fall.

Last week, Argentine crushers bought 240,000 mt of soybean which were likely to be booked for October or November delivery with sources saying Vicentin was the buyer for at least half the volume.

The sale represents the largest volume of US soybeans sold to Argentina since December 1997, when Argentine crushers had imported approximately 500,000 mt of soybean.  

Local crushers are seeking to source up to 1 million mt of soybean from the US, according to reports.

Argentina usually imports soybean from Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay.