Argentina will produce an estimated 38 million tonnes of soyabeans in the 2005/06 crop year, according to a report by a US Agriculture Department attache made public on Thursday. The attache also forecast a 2004/05 Argentina soyabean crop of 39 million tonnes, which mirrored USDA's prediction earlier this month. Soyabean harvested land is projected at 14.5 million hectares in 2005/06, down slightly from 14.2 million hectares in the current crop year, according to the report. Attache reports are not official USDA data. The report was dated May 19.
Following are highlights of the report. To see the full report, visit the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service Web site at http://www.fas.usda.gov/scriptsw/attacherep/default.asp.
"Executive Summary Several major themes stand out from the past year, and will likely continue making news into the next.
The past year was full of intense debates between producers and exporters and the government over export taxes, which, although there was talk and promises of reductions, are still in place.
Second, the ever present threat of soyabean rust prompted the Government of Argentina (GOA) to put in place a educational program to teach producers the symptoms of rust and how to treat it, as well as implementing a national warning system. And finally, the ever-present debate on intellectual property rights, as they pertain to agriculture, namely biotechnology, and royalty payments continued.
Some progress has been made in the field; most agree that the developers of the new technologies are owed payment for their investments. What is yet to be decided is the appropriate mechanism to provide such payments. Logistical and storage difficulties are being experienced during the final stages of the bulk of the oilseeds harvest. With nearly 90 percent of 39 MMT soyabean production making its way to the Rosario area, bottlenecks at the ports and crushing facilities are becoming infamous.
An estimated 30,000 trucks pass through the area daily; unloading waiting times can range from 2-5 days. Many truckers opt to forgo entering the port area, looking for routes that allow them to drop off their cargo in country elevators. Others have no problem entering the port area, but for a price: transportation charges have increased as much as 20 percent over last year.
Many producers, either unable to contract transport for their harvest or deciding to forgo the increased costs, have opted for on-farm storage. Industry estimates silo-bag storage, for all grains, will increase 30 percent this year to 18 MMT. Static storage capacity, not including silo-bags, is approximately 45 MMT (wheat basis).
Considering total grain production this year is around 82 MMT, there is a definite need for additional storage capacity. The export and crushing industries, in an effort to overcome the aforementioned bottlenecks, announced investments of over $600 million to expand crushing, storage, and port facilities, over the next several years. The announced investments in the crushing industry would increase crushing capacity 50 percent by 2006.
Total crushing capacity would reach 160,000 MT/day or 45 MMT annually, 15 percent above current soyabean production of 39 MMT. Additionally, increased on farm storage, via silo bags, has allowed producers more flexibility in selling decisions.
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