how much corn is consumed in Argentina?

Buenos Aires, November 06th. Last week a meeting between Agricultural deputy secretariat officers and representatives from local Grain Exchanges took place, to discuss the statistics around the corn production and consumption. Private analysts think that Government officials overestimate both the corn acreage, as the production and domestic consumption.

For example, for the Agricultural deputy secretariat, in the 2017/18 season, Argentina planted 9.1 million hectares, produced 43.3 million metric tons, exported 23 MMT (March ’18 to February ’19) and consumed internally 16.6 million metric tons. But for the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, the country planted 5.1 million hectares and produced 31.7 million metric tons of corn. The differences are huge, evidently.

“The key point that we discussed is how much corn is consumed in-farm, without entering the commercial circuit; but also, how much corn circulates in the non-formal market. That’s the point”, the deputy Agricultural secretary, Luis Urriza told in dialogue with www.eFarmNewsAr.com

“After we arrived at the secretariat (in December 2015), they told us that we were overestimating the wheat and soybean production, and we were able to demonstrate them that our estimations were accurate. Now is time to demonstrate that we have an accurate estimation of corn production and consumption “, Urriza added.

According to the sheets elaborated by Ag-Industry Secretariat analysts, from 2013 to 2017, domestic consumption rose from 13.2 to 19.1 million metric tons (in fact, this latest date differs from previous 16.6 MMT). In 2017, feed consumption reaches 15.8 MMT, where beef production is the most dynamic sector with a demand of 5.6 MMT. The second use of the corn in the country is the ethanol production, that demands 1.7 MMT. Last but not least, food industry consumes 1.4 MMT.

But even the records of the Ag-Industry Secretariat differs between them. For example, the records of milling corn in 2017 shows that the feed industry only declares the industrialization of 3.6 MMT, and the ethanol industry others 0.7 MMT, one million less than in the previous sheet commented. Wet milling used 1.2 MMT and dry milling other 0.2 MMT. That is to say, during 2017, corn industry declared only to process 5.6 MMT versus the 19.1 MMT estimated by Agricultural Markets deputy secretariat officials or the 16.6 MMT estimated by Agricultural deputy secretariat ones.

“We hope that finally, we will arrive at a consensus about this key issue”, Mr. Urriza concluded.