Floods in Argentina expected to cause soy crop losses

Buenos Aires | Reuters –– Some of Argentina’s northern soy-growing areas were flooded by heavy rains in the past week, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said Thursday, warning that it may lower its 57 million-tonne 2014-15 harvest forecast in the coming weeks. The country is the world’s No. 3 soybean exporter and top supplier of […] Read more

Argentine farmers to halt crop sales for three days in protest

Buenos Aires | Reuters –– Argentine farmers will suspend grain sales for three days to protest export quotas and other government policies they say hurt profits, the country’s main growers’ organizations said Tuesday. The strike will start on Wednesday, March 11, leaders of three of Argentina’s biggest farm groups told a press conference. “This action […] Read more

Argentina tracks soy hoarding by registering silo bag sales

Buenos Aires | Reuters — Argentina will keep an eye on how much soy is being hoarded on farms throughout the country by requiring that the sales of silo bags be reported to tax authorities, according to a government resolution announced Monday. The oblong industrial-strength plastic bags have come to dot the Pampas grains belt […] Read more

(Bruce Fritz photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Optimism for Canada to plant 100K acres to sunflowers

CNS Canada — Wet weather may have cost western Canadian producers 20,000 acres of sunflowers last year, according to one industry watcher who’s hopeful 2015 will be a little kinder. “We were anticipating over 100,000 acres last year and as it turned out we came into that 80,000 range,” said Ben Friesen, purchasing manager for […] Read more

Argentina to restrict wheat export permits if low prices paid

Buenos Aires | Reuters –– Wheat exporters who buy the grain from Argentina’s farmers will not be issued permits if they pay the growers significantly less than the international price for the crop, the government said Friday. The announcement, by Economy Minister Axel Kicillof, followed complaints by local producers that government restrictions on wheat exports […] Read more




Striking port workers in Argentine grains hub halt shipping

Buenos Aires | Reuters — Port workers in part of the Argentine grain hub of Rosario went on strike on Thursday to demand a year-end bonus, paralyzing ship movements, said the head of the powerful CGT union’s local branch. Wage increases are lagging behind Argentina’s soaring inflation rate, which some private economists estimate is around […] Read more


Argentine state bank to cut off farmers who hoard soy

Buenos Aires | Reuters — Argentina’s main state bank will deny credit to farmers who are holding onto soybeans as a hedge against inflation, a top official said on Friday, as the government cracks down on crop hoarding as part of a campaign to build up its dollar reserves. The grains-rich but cash-poor South American […] Read more

Dry spell to create ideal conditions for Argentine grains

Buenos Aires | Reuters — Heavy rains during the weekend will be followed by a dry spell across much of Argentina’s grains belt, creating ideal growing conditions for the 2014-15 corn and soy crop, a local meteorologist said on Monday. German Heinzenknecht, meteorologist with the (CCA) Applied Climatology Consultancy, said about 50 millimetres fell across […] Read more