Argentina’s corn association expects the government to agree to an additional 1.5 million export quota amid slumping local prices for the grain.
The group, known as Maizar, will meet officials tomorrow to lobby for the quota and also ask for as much as 7 million tons of corn to be authorized for export next year, director Martin Fraguio said today in an interview in Buenos Aires.
Argentina’s government requires that corn producers earmark 8 million tons per year for domestic consumption. Output in Argentina was about 21 million tons in the 2010-2011 season. Export quotas are announced over the course of the year.
Corn for delivery this month on Argentina’s Rosario Cereals Exchange closed at $158 per ton, or about $3.95 per bushel, yesterday after falling 17 percent this year. That compares with $7.45 a bushel for December corn on the Chicago Board of Trade, where prices rose 18.5 percent this year after the hottest summer since 1955 in the U.S. Midwest.
About 12 million tons have been authorized for export so far in Argentina for the 2010-2011 season, while no export quota has been announced for next year’s crop, now being planted. Farmers may produce about 27.5 million tons in the 2011-2012 season, according to Fraguio.
The biggest crop on record in Argentina was produced in the 2009-2010 season, at about 22 million tons.
Maizar represents members of the entire corn industry, from farmers to exporters as well as seed companies, mills and traders.
The U.S. is the world’s largest corn exporter.
Source: Bloomberg-businessweek.com