Foreign media news on November 30: The report released by the Argentine Ministry of Agriculture shows that the soybean sales of Argentine farmers continue to lag behind the same period last year, reflecting that farmers are holding back and waiting for the government to implement a new round of preferential exchange rates.

As of November 23, Argentine farmers had pre-sold 2.047 million tons of 2022/23 soybeans, an increase of 61,000 tons from a week ago and lower than the 3.340 million tons in the same period last year.

The Argentine government implemented a special exchange rate of 230 pesos to 1 US dollar for soybean sales from November 28 to December 31, in order to encourage farmers to sell soybeans and expand exports to earn foreign exchange. The current official exchange rate is around 165 pesos.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast Argentina’s 2022/23 soybean production at 49.5 million tons in November, down from an October forecast of 51 million tons. The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange forecast soybean production at 48 million tonnes.

As of November 23, Argentine farmers had sold a total of 32.08 million tons of 2021/22 soybeans, 188,000 tons higher than a week ago and lower than the cumulative sales of 35.09 million tons in the same period last year.

For comparison, sales in the week ended Sept. 28 reached 1.787 million tonnes, bringing September sales to 13.9 million tonnes as the Argentine government offered a special exchange rate of 200 pesos to the dollar in September to encourage faster soybean sales , to increase foreign exchange reserves.

The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange forecasts that Argentina’s soybean production will reach 43.3 million tons in 2021/22. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast Argentina’s soybean production at 43.9 million tons in November, down from an estimate of 44 million tons in October.

The Minister of Finance of Argentina announced on September 4th that from September 5th to 30th, the settlement exchange rate for Argentinian soybean farmers to sell soybeans was 200 pesos per US dollar, instead of the official 140 pesos, prompting farmers to sell soybeans enthusiastically.

Previously, due to the high inflation in Argentina (the inflation rate may be close to 100% this year) and the continuous depreciation of the currency, Argentine farmers were reluctant to sell soybeans, and used soybeans as hard currency to resist the weakening of the peso. Since Argentine farmers sell soybeans in pesos, the depreciation of the peso means that holding soybeans is a better deal than owning pesos.