Argentine soy paralyzed by peso uncertainty; farmers hoard beans

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina's closing soy prices and trends on Friday:

Trade was nil in the Rosario grains market, where soy closed at 2,235 pesos per tonne on Wednesday, the last day that the oilseed traded in the South American country.

Argentine soybean farmers are registering their lack of faith in the country's peso currency by hoarding beans even as the local futures market shows a clear drop in the price of the oilseed for delivery in the months ahead.

In the port of Bahia Blanca, soy traded at 2,420 pesos per tonne, compared with 2,335 on Thursday.

Argentina said on Friday it would relax currency controls it had long defended as essential, a policy reversal forced by high inflation and a sharp fall in the country's currency.

The official peso rate has fallen 20 percent against the dollar so far this month, pressuring inflation even higher as confidence falls. The shift came after central bank reserves fell under $30 billion, suggesting the bank's interventions in support of the anemic peso had become unsustainable.