MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina soy export terminals resume full activities

Strikers had blockaded 16% of the country’s soy oil processing capacity

Argentine dock workers reached a wage deal on Friday and called off a three-day-old protest that paralyzed two major soy export terminals and stopped 20 grains ships from loading, a union leader said.

The blockade by members of dock workers' cooperative gridlocked two crushing plants and export terminals in the Rosario agricultural hub, which is one of the world’s largest and the main exit point for Argentine soy.

“Today we're pleased because we've reached a deal and the protest measures are being lifted in Terminal 6 and Cargill” Herme Juarez, head of the dock workers' cooperative was quoted by the local press.

The blockade by members of Juarez's cooperative targeted a terminal north of the city of Rosario shared by Bunge and Argentina's AGD, and at another nearby facility operated by Cargill.

The two terminals account for about 16% of Argentina’s soy-oil-processing capacity. Argentina is the world's biggest supplier of soy-oil and soy-meal.

Earlier on Friday, port workers suspended a brief protest that halted shipping activity in the southern grains ports of Quequen and Bahia Blanca, SOMU shipping workers' union Omar Suarez told Reuters.

He said the union wanted exporters to use a logistics company that hires its members, but had called off the protest following a request from the government.

Both Bahia Blanca and Quequen are key movers of Argentine wheat, especially since the country's 2010/11 harvest ended last month