Argentina-The 2009 Soy harvest ready for sale.

ARGENTINA-THE FIRST OF 2009 SOY HARVEST HITS MARKET.

Rosario — The first lot of soybeans from the 2008/2009 harvest formally sold so far this year fetched $3,050 a ton at a symbollic auction held at the Rosario Grains Exchange (BCR) yesterday. The soybean lot wasere acquired by Agricultores Federados Argentinos (AFA).

The auction was presided over by Santa Fe Governor Hermes Binner, Rosario Mayor Miguel Lifschitz, BCR President Jorge Weskamp and a host of businessmen and farming leaders.

The soybean lot, a 29,510-kilo truckload produced in Ballesteros, in Córdoba Province, by El Sol Agropecuaria, had arrived in Rosario on March 5 and was offloaded at Vicentín SAIC. Grimaldi Grassi SA acted as grain brokers for the sale.

As is usually the case with start-of-season grain auctions, the price paid for yesterday’s soybean lot was symbollic, far outpacing the $940 a ton reached by another grain shipment in Rosario on Tuesday.