Argentina: Record-breaking wheat exports to Brazil

Argentina exported to Brazil 5,910,000 tonnes of wheat suitable for bread, which meant the volume of shipments to that country is the highest of the last 12 years and represented an income of USD 1,306 Billion, as revealed by the Secretariat of Government of agribusiness, through the undersecretary of agricultural markets.

This record figure, according to the Indec data, was only exceeded in 2006, when 6.1 million tonnes were exported to Brazil.

In the period 2016-18, meanwhile, the deliveries of wheat to the neighboring country totaled 15.3 million tons, data that meant the double that had been exported during the period 2013-15, when they had shipped 7,520,000 of tonnes.

That variation meant an increase of 103.47%, in volume. The total level of wheat exports,  placed Argentina at the international level of 35.2 million tonnes in the period 2016-18, when in the preceding three years the deliveries to other countries had become 15.7 million tonnes.

In January, the Rosario Stock Exchange indicated that in 2018 Brazil imported 6,810,000 tonnes of wheat, an amount  13.2% higher than it had acquired in 2017.

The purchases of wheat from the neighboring country last year were 5.9 million tons, a number that represented 17.8% more than the previous year’s.

Brazil has established itself as the main market for Argentine wheat. In 2018, this product reached an 87% share in total wheat imports that neighboring country made.

In 2018, the fine grain campaign ended with a record wheat harvest of 19 million tons, which meant 7% more — a percentage similar to 1,250,000 tons — than the previous season, according to data released by the Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange.

This phenomenon was given despite the fact that the spring climate had cut the yields, which were, on average, 31.2 quintals per hectare, 3.1% less than in 2017.

Recently, the Ieral, of the Mediterranean Foundation, announced that 13 million tonnes of the 19 million tonnes expected to be produced this year could be exported.

That amount of shipments abroad would generate about USD 3 Billion in currencies; That is, USD 500 million more compared to what was exported in 2018.

In turn, this year’s Cordoba’s cereal crop indicates that 2019 will come with even better numbers.

They reported that total production could reach 19.4 million tons of wheat. That amount, along with the prices of the crops, which were among the best in the last 11 years, could generate a gross value of the crop of USD 4.45 billion. At present, the FOB value of the tonne is located in the USD 232.