Miller Magazine Issue: 129 September 2020

ArgentIna 80 MILLER / September 2020 uador. Exports to South East Asia will see significant volumes shipped to Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia. Large volumes of wheat are also expected to flow to north African countries, USDA re- ports. Producers are very worried about the possibility of the government increasing the export tax on wheat from 12 percent to 15 percent, as allowed by Congress. In December 2019 the new government placed a fixed tax of 12 percent (until then the export tax depended on the fluctuation of the exchange rate and at the time of the change it was equivalent to a 6.7 percent tax). The Minister of Agriculture has repeated recently that the government does not plan to increase the export tax. BARLEY USDA forecasts barley exports in MY 2020/21 at 2.4 million tons, in line with expected smaller production. Roughly half of the volume will be malting barley with the remaining balance in feed barley. Local traders be- lieve that, due to China’s punitive tariffs on Australian barley, Argentina will increase exports of intermediate quality barley (FAQ – fair average quality) to China and reduce its exports of feed barley to Saudi Arabia, which could increase sourcing from Australia. Ecuador and Peru will likely import malting barley from Australia instead of Argentina. CORN Corn is one of the main crops grown in Argentina. USDA projects the MY 2020/21 corn crop will trend down to 47.6 million tons. And exports are projected at 33 million tons. Vietnam is expected to be the num- ber one destination with 20-25 percent of total corn exports, followed by other Southeast Asian markets as well as destinations in Africa. Argentina’s main export window is between March, when the harvest begins, and July/August when the Brazilian zafrinha corn enters the commercial market. In the second part of the year, exports diminish each month. MILLING INDUSTRY Wheat milling is an important value-adding compo- nent of the Argentinian wheat industry. A tonne of flour converted into baked goods multiplies its value around eightfold. According to the Argentinian Federation of the Milling Industry (FAIM), the Latin American country has 13.5 million annual tons of milling capacity. There are 190 milling plants in the country. In the 2001-2014 period,