By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 12 1997 (IPS)

The Argentine soya producers are on the up: demand for flour, beans and oils are increasing, supply is not yet meeting demand and prices are showing a very favourable curve.

Such was the explanation given to IPS by Alberto Rodriguez, leader of the Chamber of the Oil Industry.

Argentina is the world’s third greatest producer of soya following the United States and Brazil, and the second largest exporter behind the latter, its biggest trading partner within the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur).

In recent years the oleaginous complex (soya, sunflower, linseed, groundnut and cotton) became Argentina’s main exports.

Rodriguez said the sector had been going through a very good period, but that this year in particular, two positive variables had come together: a record harvest, of around 14,3 million tons, and high prices due to low world stock.

The low level of stock noted by the United States Agriculture Department this week and the increasing demand contributed to lifting prices on the Chicago market to levels even higher than those of 1996, when soya production had reached 13.7 million tons.

Soya is currently earning 315 dollars per ton.

The United States produces around 60 million tons of soya per year, but most of its production goes to the domestic market. The same is true of China, which competed as an exporter up until five years ago, when it became one of the main importers.

Meanwhile, the nations of Southeast Asia form one of the blocs currently presenting increasing demand, not only in edible oils but also for soya flour used to feed poultry and cattle. Europe, another soya producer, is also a good buyer.

The international prices of cereals, which showed a tendency to rise in early 1996, also helped achieve the better performance of the soya trade. The producers turned over more land to wheat and maize and less to soya, which is now in greatest demand.

“In other years, the good prices met with reduced production, or the other way round, we had a good harvest by the international prices did not benefit us,” explained Rodriguez.

“This year, both these variables are in our favour, and we believe this situation will be maintained for some time,” he added.

According to a study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), exports from the oil complex in Argentina rose from a sum of 196 million dollarrs in the seventies to 3.362 billion this decade. This year foreign sales are expected to reach 4.3 million dollars.

Prompted by the increased world demand, soya has spread across the Argentine countryside, with ever increasing levels of productivity per hectare through constant investment in technology and a shrinking workforce.

This process was accompanied by economic concentration parallel to the falling employment. Between 1970 and 1994, the total number of workers employed in this activity fell 28 percent despite the high levels of expansion.

Production remained in the hands of a few companies. While there were more than 80 companies exporting oil products in the seventies, by 1995 a mere 11 companies dominated 88 percent of world soya sales and 93 percent of the sunflower market.

At present, if taken together, the oleaginous products are the leading national export product. No less that 24 percent of Argentina’s sales abroad come from this sector.

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