Grains shipping was normal at Argentina's key port of Rosario on Thursday despite a strike by trucking firms demanding that Buenos Aires province set a guaranteed minimum hauling tariff, an industry official said. The FETRA group of trucking companies began striking earlier this week in Buenos Aires province and vowed to turn up the pressure by expanding their work stoppage to Rosario, in neighbouring Santa Fe province.
About 80 percent of the South American country's farm exports are shipped from the Rosario area. Some trucking companies did not adhere to the strike and exporters also relied on stocks to keep shipments moving on Thursday. "Everything is calm in the ports. Shipping and crushing activity is normal today," said Gabriel Abbo, manager of the San Lorenzo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, located in a suburb of Rosario.
A late afternoon negotiation session between Buenos Aires officials and FETRA did not yield an agreement. "The protest will continue," Valeria Pardo, legal advisor to FETRA, said after the Thursday talks. According to data from the Rosario Grains Exchange, 3,044 trucks entered the port area on Thursday, up 30 percent from the day before. The market will watch to see if the protest starts to have an effect on port activity in the days ahead if the strike continues or deepens. The protest in Buenos Aires province has kept grains from being delivered to the smaller ports of Quequen and Bahia Blanca this week. But exports have not been slowed so far because both facilities have enough stocks to keep loading ships.
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