MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New private port for grains trade along the Paraná

Apparently the town of Timbues, some 50 km north of the city of Rosario has been the place chosen for the private port with an investment of some US$ 550 million

The administration of Argentine president Javier Milei announced last week plans for a US$550 million investment to build a new port in the Rosario region, the country's major grains and oilseeds hub.

The government did not give details from where the funds would come, but a source at the CIARA-CEC chamber of grain exporters and processors told Reuters that local port operator Terminales y Servicios S.A., which already manages three ports in the area, was making the investment.

Argentina's Bio-economy Secretariat, part of the Economy Ministry, declined to comment on the matter. Rosario, along the mighty Parana waterway which extends from the River Plate to Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, operates with more than 80% of Argentina's agriculture and agro-industry exports.

Cash broke Argentina, after two decades of economic mismanagement, is still one of the world’s top two exporters of soybean oil and meal, and No. 3 in corn exports. The banks of the Parana River, which flows down to Buenos Aires, are dotted with ports for loading grain onto ships destined all over the world, but so are very strong unions and their restrictive labor legislation.

“We’re announcing an investment for the construction of a new agro-industrial port in Timbues, on the Parana River,” presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni told a news conference, referring to a town some 50 km north of the city of Rosario.

Adorni added without revealing more details, ”the investment will be around U$S 550 million. Construction will begin this month.”

International companies and commodity traders such as Bunge BG.N, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus already have grain loading and unloading terminals in the region.

Argentina’s 2023/24 soybean and corn harvests are set to kick off next month. The Rosario Stock Exchange estimates the harvests will total some 49.5 million metric tons of soybeans and 57 million tons of corn.