Argentina paves the way for corn exports to China with updated protocol

The Argentine government has made revisions to the Chinese corn import protocol, aiming to facilitate the long-awaited start of corn shipments from Argentina to China, nearly 11 years after the initial agreement was signed.

Sergio Massa, the Secretary of Agriculture at the Ministry of Economy, is expected to finalize the new agreement models with the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China in the coming days.

The first corn export protocol between Argentina and China was signed on February 15, 2012, and was subsequently revised on November 24, 2014. However, actual shipments of corn have not taken place thus far due to the challenges faced by Argentine exporters in meeting all the Chinese requirements.

“We haven’t exported anything because the previous protocol was not compliant with phytosanitary regulations. This protocol doesn’t guarantee exports; we’ll see what happens and whether it’s feasible to comply with it,” explained an agricultural export source to La Nacion newspaper.

Regarding the latest update in 2023, Jesús María Silveyra, the former Undersecretary for Agricultural Markets in Mauricio Macri’s government, stated to La Nacion that “the new corn phytosanitary protocol approved with China doesn’t introduce any significant changes compared to the previous one, except for the modification aspects on certain pests, removing two and adding one. Therefore, the issues that still hinder corn exports to China remain unchanged and revolve around the inherent risks outlined in the protocol, which were not addressed. Consequently, no corn has been exported to China since 2013, when approximately 66,000 tonnes were shipped.”

Check below some of Argentina’s top destinations for its corn shipments, measured in TEUs, in the first four months of 2023. The data is from DataLiner.

Top destinations for Argentine corn | Jan – Abr | TEU

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

According to data from the Argentine publication, Argentina exported 34.5 million tonnes of corn in 2022. Among various markets, the leading buyers were Vietnam (5.3 million tonnes), South Korea (4.7 million tonnes), Peru (3.05 million tonnes), Algeria (2.58 million tonnes), and Malaysia (2.57 million tonnes).

Source: Notícias Agrícolas
To read the original news report, click on: https://www.noticiasagricolas.com.br/noticias/milho/350831-argentina-e-china-atualizam-protocolo-de-exportacao-de-milho-que-pode-permitir-asiaticos-compraram-o-cereal-argentino.htm

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