Argentina-Lift in Soy prices.
ARGENTIA-JUMP IN SOY PRICES.
The price of soybean has jumped by more than 30 percent so far in 2009, soaring at values that were unthinkable at the turn of the year and even beat July 2008 prices, data provided by the Rosario Grain Exchange on a daily basis shows.
The exchange handles the largest volumes of soybean being traded country-wide. Latest data, however, show that although soybean prices are rebounding healthily, farmers are taking a cautious approach towards sales.
Grain market sources told DyN that volumes of the oil seed being offered are slightly above those traded prior to the start of the upward trend in price which is now nearing 400 dollars a ton. Soybean is Argentina’s largest grain export.
The previously usual 20,000/25,000 tons traded daily are sometimes "but not every day" exceeded by some 5,000 tons. Grain Exchange sources said the background to this increase was the present harvest. Around 35-45 percent of sowed area surface remains to be harvested. Soybean growing has occupied the largest arable surface in the country since it consolidated as a promising product in the 80s.
In other soybean related news, Defence Minister Nilda Garré yesterday vetoed the cultivation of genetically modified soybean in urban and suburban land owned by the Armed Forces or near military housing areas.
Resolution MD 367, sanctioned by the Defence Ministry yesterday, called for renegotiation of current land lease contracts in order to adapt these to the new regulation. It also pointed out that the effects of soybean growing on the environment and public health "are not neutral."
In another farming development, the relentless slaughter of fertile cows for meat consumption that has characterised Argentina’s cattle business for almost 30 months is bound to result in the loss of 2.7 million calves in 2009, a study released by the Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA) grouping yesterday said.
In a paper titled "We’re eating our future" (Nos estamos comiendo el futuro), CRA’s livestock experts said they believed "Argentina’s current farming policy has led to decreasing cattle stocks over the last two years."
They explained that their assertion had been proved by — among other factors — an increase in the slaughter of females (veal and heifers) which otherwise could have be festilized for stock replenishment. Cattle stocks are of capital importance for Argentina but are now in jeopardy, they estimated.
The private study also recalled previous CRA estimates which had warned that "we would have next to one million less females with which to replenish stocks." But, it said, "this figure was largely exceeded by the decrease in fertile cows" based on vaccination data released by the Senasa Animal and Foodstuff Health Service. The official statistics show a decrease from 22.2 million wombs in 2007 to 20.8 million in 2008.
CRA says this trend is becoming more pronounced. In 2007, the slaughter of heifers had increased on 2006 thus making it "impossible to replace two million females in 2009." Females are usually fertilized when they turn two years.
CRA underlined its study had been based on official data. It stressed that the difficulty replenishing cattle stocks in 2009, further compounded by a decrease in pregnancies (which experts put at eight percent) would lead to a sizable fall in the number of calves in 2009."
