Sergio Massa will announce the changes to the “soybean dollar” with the aim of speeding up exchange rate settlement

Before leaving on a trip to Washington this Monday, Serge Massa will make announcements On changes in the liquidation of the so-called “soybean dollar”. This afternoon, at the Palacio de Hacienda, the Minister of Economy will hold a press conference in which he will confirm the new scheme agreed with the industry to accelerate settlement in foreign currency.

There is expectation in the sector: on Thursday in a meeting with the Liaison Table, Massa anticipated to the ruralists the intention of bring the exchange rate to $ 200 to encourage the sale of grain. The announcement was scheduled for Friday, but had to be postponed due to the unexpected national holiday following the attack on Vice President Cristina Kirchner.

At that meeting, rural leaders asked the Minister of Economy that the measure not only affect soybeans and be extended to other cereals. Furthermore, they warned that the measure cannot be temporary.

The government carried out part of the negotiations with the export sector. On Wednesday, the conversations that took place and the progress that would be made in implementation a special and extraordinary regime currency regulation applicable only for the purchase of soybeans.

The special condition would reportedly last only for this month and would happen via communication to AFIP. “You would not need to have special dollar or correspondent accounts under the latest BCRA notice,” said a leak on the new soybean dollar.

sale of soybeans

The soybean dollar that the central bank rolled out last month to encourage producers to sell soybeans it did not have the success the government hoped for.

Since it began trading, there have been 369 deals worth $ 3.36 billion. 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 tons less (20.3%)And in this sense, in August, producers marketed the lowest volume of soybeans since 2005 (the first year with official data).

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 they are 3.7 million tons were sold (the month with the highest sales in the August series), the transaction fell 62%.