Corn marketing in Argentina touches 50% of projected output for this season

New Delhi — Corn marketing by producers in Argentina at 25.04 million mt has touched 50% of the projected 2019-20 season output, up 20% year-on-year, according to the latest data released by the country's agriculture ministry.

Producers in Argentina actively marketed corn this season well before the harvest as the new government that came into power in December was expected to raise the tax on export, which it did in the same month.

Argentina is the largest corn exporter in the world, following the US and Brazil.

This year Argentina is likely to face much stronger competition from the top exporters as they are expected to harvest a bumper crop amid low prices.

As of Wednesday, Argentina corn FOB prices are cheaper than both the US and Brazil corn, data from S&P Global Platts showed.

Although Brazil's corn is considerably costlier than Argentina's at this stage, this may change in the coming weeks as the second corn harvest in Brazil has begun.

Argentina is likely to export 34 million mt of corn in 2019-20, which refers to the period March 2020-February 2021, compared with an estimated 37.24 million mt in 2018-19, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

In Argentina corn harvesting was complete in 43.5% of a planted area with 24.6 million mt of corn collected as of May 21, according to the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange.