Argentina: biofuels & agricultural exports
Update Agri news July 2021
Export of grains and by-products:
A fact to highlight is that total grain exports during the first semester of 2021 showed a decline of 18.9% versus the same period of the previous year. The lower production that the soybean campaign produced was felt in shipments abroad, in terms of volume but not foreign exchange income, because the rise in international prices allowed the record of 16,600 million dollars to be reached during the same period.
Meanwhile, analyzing the total data, shipments in the by-products segment grew 15.3% year-on-year, since they went from 14.3 million tons in the first half of 2020, compared to 16.5 million tons of this year.
In the oil category, there is also evidence of growth in exports, since in the first half of the year the accumulated reached 4 million tons, which represents an increase of 38% compared to the 2.9 million in June 2020.
Biofuels:
The Senate signed into law the new biofuels regime, which reduces the cut of biodiesel in diesel from 10% to 5% and maintains that of bioethanol in fuels at 12%. This law will be in effect until 2030 and replaces the previous one that was in force for 15 years. It is a hard blow and a strong change in the game rules to a dynamic sector that has made large and numerous investments in recent years.
Meat exports:
After the closure of exports, the government regulated the opening by applying export percentages and quotas to different meat processing plants, in theory to be reviewed. Additionally, it launches a livestock plan led by the Minister of Agriculture and different provinces.
Regarding the flexibilizations, officials announced that these could be the release of the prohibited cuts within the cow category. In this sense, they argued that the implementation is delayed since they must adapt the control systems. In addition, the idea is to unlock the export of kosher meat.
