In the Rosario grains market, soy closed higher at 2.100 pesos per tonne ($340), compared with 2,050 on Friday on strong demand from local buyers looking to clean up the little grain that is left from the last harvest, traders said.

However, volumes were limited because many soy producers are holding back grain stocks waiting for better prices and a more favorable exchange rate.

Soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell on Monday on technical selling and profit-taking after the front contract set a two-month top and December soymeal set a life-of-contract high, traders said.

Rosario soy for delivery in April 2014, which is quoted in US dollars, closed at $297 per tonne.

Argentina has ordered its thermo-electric generating plants to use biodiesel and raised to 10 percent the mandatory mix of biodiesel added to diesel sold in the country, which should pressure prices upwards.

Recent rains in the Pampas grains belt have helped speed soy seeding and the emergence of recently-planted beans, the agriculture ministry said in its weekly report. Fifty-four percent of the 2013/14 crop has been planted, it said.