BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s farmers have sold 78.9% of the 2021/2022 soybean harvest so far, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday, as producers continue to benefit from a preferential exchange rate aimed at attracting sorely needed US dollars.

Still, the amount of soybeans sold to date slightly lags the 80% sold at the same point in the previous 2020/2021 season.

Between Dec. 15 and Dec. 21, producers in Argentina sold 730,300 tonnes of the 44 million-tonne 2021/2022 soybean crop, one of the highest weekly figures in recent months.

Soybean sales spiked last month after the government revived a policy that allowed farmers to tap a preferential exchange rate for transactions of the grain. The policy is set to end on Friday.

Argentina is the world’s leading exporter of soymeal, as well as a major supplier of corn and wheat.

Meanwhile, the government said 74% of the country’s 2021/2022 corn crop, which totaled 59 million tonnes, had been sold to date, behind the 76.8% sold in the same period during the 2020/2021 cycle. Planting of corn for the 2022/23 cycle began in September in Argentina, the third-largest exporter of the cereal, where a prolonged drought affected the development of early-planted grains, the major Rosario grains exchange said.

Farmers have sold 6.4 million tonnes of wheat from the 2022/23 campaign, which represents 48% of the total production of 13.4 million tonnes estimated by the government.