Farmer sales of Argentinian corn and soybeans doubled in the final week of July, according to government data, as a weaker peso helped firm domestic soybean prices and a rush to sell corn ahead of the Brazil harvest saw farmers move corn.
Weekly soybeans sales from the current crop rose to 1.35 million mt, up from 651,000 mt a week earlier, while next year’s crop sales were 116,000 mt up from 71,000 mt.
The figures for the existing crop are also more than double that of the same week last year.
Sales to the export market were 630,000 mt, up from 261,000 mt a week earlier and about seven times higher than the same week a year earlier.
It comes as export prices once converted to pesos and after tax rose from ARS14,600/mt to ARS14,900/mt, according to Agricensus data.
The Argentine peso has weakened around 1.5% compared with a week ago, amid renewed concerns about emerging markets and fears that left-leaning populist Alberto Fernandez could be gaining in popularity against the incumbent Mauricio Macri ahead of October’s presidential election.
Meanwhile, sales to crushers were 718,000 mt, up from 390,000 mt a week earlier and 455,000 mt a year earlier.
Crush margins rose from $12/mt to $21/mt by the end of the month as soyoil prices soared more than 3% due to lower global vegoil output.
Approximately 31 million mt of the existing crop of 56 million mt has been sold – around 55% – compared with 28 million mt of a 37-million mt crop last year (75%).
Corn
In terms of corn, farmer sales reached 1.67 million mt during the week, up 60% on the same volume a week earlier.
Sales to exporters rose to 1.1 million mt from 583,000 mt a week earlier and 510,000 mt a year earlier, while industry purchases rose to 519,000 mt from 476,000 mt a week earlier, although they were down on the 858,000 mt a year earlier.
Old crop corn sold so far this year has reached 30 million mt out of an expected 51 million mt this year (68%) compared with 18 million mt out of a 32 million mt crop at this point last year (56%).
The figures highlight how farmers are accelerating corn sales at the expense of soybeans compared with last year.
Source: agricensus
