MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine also affected by sharp increase in the price of freight

Less ships available bring up the cost of freight for Argentine exports

The Argentine Agroindustrial Council (CAA) Thursday issued a statement whereby it warned that “the marine logistics collapse is severely limiting agri-food exports.”

The CAA also explained there were sectors already suffering from the stalling of shipments abroad.

“Argentine foreign trade has been experiencing various inconveniences in maritime logistics that negatively impact exports and this situation has been worsening in recent weeks,” the CAA pointed out.

The council described the current situation as “distressing” and insisted it affects all “containerized” cargo shipped abroad which has been dented by the decrease in maritime flow to Argentina.

Products such as soybeans and their derivatives, corn or wheat are not reached by this crisis, unlike peanuts or legumes which are sent abroad aboard large containers.

“Beyond the global situation that conditions maritime traffic, there are specific impacts for Argentina,” the statement went on.

The peanut industry has warned that due to these circumstances it was losing foreign markets, which added to their already increasing logistic costs coupled with export taxes.

The CAA also explained that the beginning of this collapse was due to the successive displacement of loads from one ship to another with delays reaching up to six weeks. Exports were also hit by repeated cancellations of freight contracts between private exporters and shipping operators, which have increased the price of freights “three, four, five and up to eight times about those [in place] for years,” the Council explained.

This situation has led to large losses for exporting companies dealing in future cargoes, which means contracts are closed once sales orders are confirmed.