Argentina's centre-right government said on Monday it was disappointed by the volume of soya stocks sold by farmers in the three weeks since it reduced the tax on soyabean exports. President Mauricio Macri cut the tax on shipments of soyabeans, the country's main cash crop, from 35 percent to 30 percent days after assuming power, while scrapping export taxes on corn and wheat.
The move was aimed at revitalizing the country's massive farm sector which was hobbled by trade controls imposed by the former president, Cristina Fernandez. Data published on Monday by CIARA-CEC, Argentina's chamber of grains exporting and soya crushing companies, showed firms sold $752.3 million to the central bank from exports between December 28 and December 30. That was more than double the amount sold in the whole of November. In total, grains companies sold $2 billion to the central bank from exports in the three weeks after the controls were lifted. That figure is 10 percent of the annual total of $20 billion.
Even so, Ricardo Negri, secretary for agriculture, livestock and fisheries, said higher volumes had been anticipated during the three-week period. "We were expecting that more stock reserves would have been sold by this point and we hope that this happens in the coming days," Negri told reporters.