Surprise meeting between Sergio Massa and the liaison table: there would be announcements to accelerate the sale of soy

This afternoon, and with surprise, the Minister of Economy, Production and Agriculture, Serge Massamet the connection table and warned ruralists that next week there will be announcements about a new tool to speed up foreign exchange settlement.

The meeting between Massa and the agricultural leaders, which had not been scheduled, was at the Ministry of Economy for a space of 40 minutes. From the government attended by the Secretary of Agriculture, Juan José Bahillo. And on the pitch, Nicolás Píno, president of the Argentine Rural Society, is absent.

Carlos Achatonipresident of the Agricultural Federation, he assured Rural trumpet that Massa has anticipated that he will make announcements next week about a new system to accelerate soybean sales. But the rural has assured that he has not given them details on how the implementation will be.

Bahillo anticipated this Thursday in his Senate speech that the government “is working on and analyzing” a proposal that encourages the liquidation of soybeans.

The leader of the Agrarian Federation indicated that he also spoke at the meeting with Massa about the strengthening of regional economies, but for the moment he said that there will be no announcement in this regard.

sale of soybeans

The soybean dollar implemented by the Central Bank to encourage producers to sell soybeans did not have the success the government expected. From when it started operating in early August until closing today, there were 369 transactions for $ 3,360 million. On the last day, 131 transactions were recorded for 767 million dollars, while producers bought foreign currency for 25% of the amount available. This is 35% of the transactions and 22% of the amount. This has been indicated by official sources to Clarin Rural.

According to official data, the total volume traded up to August 24 was 22.7 million tons compared to 28.5 million tons sold on the same date in the previous cycle. This is 5.8 million tonnes less (20.3%). And in this line, producers marketed the lowest volume of soybeans since 2005 (the first year with official data) in August. According to the analysis of the broker Grassi SA, 1.3 million tons of soybeans were sold in August (data up to 24), 36% less than in the same month of 2021. And it compares with August 2019, when marketed 3.7 million tons (the month with the highest sales in the August series), the transaction was down 62%.

Dollar at 200 pesos

As it was learned this Thursday, the government is considering the implementation for the month of September of a special and extraordinary regime for the settlement of foreign currency at the exchange rate of 200 pesos, applicable only to the purchase of soybeans. This was reported by the Chamber of the Petroleum Industry of the Argentine Republic (Ciara) and the Cereal Export Center (CEC), although they said from that body that there is nothing officially confirmed.

The government would also include the need to register the DJVE of soybeans and by-products under Law 21453. This special condition in September would be voluntary for exporters joining the scheme in writing via notification to AFIP, they indicated Industry sources, and although the details of the rule are not yet known, have argued that special dollar or correspondent accounts would not be required under the latest BCRA disclosure.

Furthermore, they indicated, there would be a working table where CIARA CEC will work with AFIP, BCRA and other entities on the following issues: revision of RG 3577/2014 for its mitigation, adjustment of the financing in pesos of the ceilings established by the BCRA (equalization of the amounts) and the expansion of the equilibrium volume for maize (possibly to 4 million tons, or 2.5 million tons in DJVE 360).

Field settlement record

In August, Argentine agro-export companies entered 3,387,888,431 dollars, the highest figure in the last 20 years of the month. In this way, the currency contribution made so far in 2022 reaches $ 25,696,907,401, a record since registrations began.

According to the Chamber of the Petroleum Industry of the Argentine Republic (CIARA) and the Centro Exporters of Cereals (CEC), entities that represent 48% of Argentine exports, in the eighth month of the year the companies in the sector liquidated 5% in more than in July and 11% more than in August 2021.