Threat of Argentine port strike looms ahead of record soya harvest

Workers in Argentina's grains hub Rosario threatened to launch an open-ended strike on Monday that would put upward pressure on global food prices by interrupting supply from the top exporter of soyameal livestock feed. The Rosario work stoppage would start at midnight and come smack in the middle of what promises to be a record Argentine harvest. Soya is a key source of protein for cattle, chickens and pigs as diets in Asia shift from rice toward meat.
"If this strike happens, it will affect loading operations at all terminals," said Guillermo Wade, head of Argentina's Port and Maritime Activities Chamber, referring to the 22 Parana River port terminals around the towns of San Lorenzo, San Martin and Timbues.
Strikes are common in Argentina, where the economy has slowed to a crawl while inflation rages in the double digits, fuelling steep annual wage demands from unions such at the powerful CGT labour group representing stevedores in Rosario. The CGT will decide late Monday whether to follow recent flash work stoppages with a strike that would go on until a pay contract is signed with the CIARA-CEC exporters' chamber. Recent dry weather has allowed most Argentine farmers to harvest soya rapidly, after early-season rains bolstered yields.
The 2014/15 crop is expected at 60 million tonnes, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said last week, increasing its previous estimate of 58.5 million tonnes. In some parts of the core grains belt including northern Buenos Aires, south and central Santa Fe and south-east Cordoba provinces - growers say yields have touched 6.5 tonnes per hectare. The national average over the last 14 years is 2.61 tons per hectare, according to the exchange.
Heavy showers in some southern parts of the farm belt have meanwhile washed out roads and waterlogged low-lying fields. "The rains are going to delay harvesting for at least a week, because fields are too soft to support harvesting machines and some roads are impassable," said Alvaro Tomas, a grower in Carlos Casares, southern Buenos Aires province.
It rained hard in Carlos Casares on Thursday and Friday. "Were will be losses in some low-lying areas," he added. "Yields have been around average. New records are not being set, like they are further north." Growers in some southern parts of bread basket province Buenos Aires have reported yields as low at 1.5 tonnes per hectare.