Waiting for approval of crushing plants to export soymeal to China

(Photo: Ms. Marisa Bircher (right) in the Acsoja annual summit)

Buenos Aires, September 27th. Today, at the National Soybean Association (Acsoja) annual summit, the Ag-Industry Markets Secretary, Marisa Bircher, said that soybean meal exports to China depend on the approval of the crushing plants by Chinese regulatory authorities, but that this approval is “imminent”.

Ms. Bircher commented that China is the large destination of Argentine agricultural exports and that this country is increasing its purchases of products like beef and poultry. “Last year I traveled six times to China, and this year I was there four times and even they are missing twice”, said. “In the last two and a half years we signed eight (sanitary and phytosanitary) protocols to enhance our bilateral trade”, added.

Argentina is the third world largest soybean producer, with a harvest that will round 53 MMT in the coming season 2018/19, but it is the first soymeal and soyoil world exporter, thanks to its huge crushing industry, with a 60 MMT of capacity.

In the context of a trade war between the US and China, Argentina emerges as a solid soybean supplier, but local oilseed industry fears that Chinese demand focused only in the bean. “In the last trip we met Sinograin executives and we agreed on the export of soyoil; even it is a small volume, initially, it talks about the commitment of our Asiatic partners on the bilateral trade”, Bircher told to the audience at the Rosario Grain Exchange.

But the key is the export of the soybean meal, the main agricultural product exported by Argentina. “It is imminent that local crushing plants were authorized to export the soymeal to China”, the official advanced.

Sources at the oilseed industry explained to www.eFarmNewsAR.com, that there are two protocols for the export of soybean byproducts to China, one for the oil and one for the meal. “Sinograin is a public company that expressed its intention to buy 300,000 tons of soyoil, but still this purchase did not materialize. We are waiting for private feed companies interested in buying soybean meal; this will be an excellent new for our industry”, the source concludes.