Soybeans are set to establish several records this year in Uruguay: exports will be above one billion dollars; for the first time the oilseed will be the leading export item of the country displacing beef and prospects for the next season are that over a million hectares will be planted.
The Argentine maritime workers union, SOMU, decided not to work overtime, a measure which affects most ports from inland Rosario on the Paraná River to Bahía Blanca on the South Atlantic, when thousands of trucks are lined up with the summer harvest.
Drought in major soybean producers Brazil and Argentina cut their production more deeply than expected the US government said on Tuesday in a report that drove prices to near their highest since 2008.
Brazilian farmers will likely plant at least 26.2 million hectares with soybeans in the next crop, up 1.1 million hectares from the current 2011-12 crop, forecaster Agroconsult said Tuesday.
Chinese State of Administration of Grains revealed that the world's top buyer of soybeans is on course to import 25% more in the first half of this year than the first six months of 2011, which will benefit major producers Argentina, Brazil and US.
Drought over Brazil's southern soy growing states prompted analysts Agroconsult to strike 2.8 million tons from its forecast of the 2011/12 crop to 67.1 million tons from 69.9 million previously.
Oil World cut its forecast for Brazil and Paraguay soybean production, extending the run of downgrades amid ideas that rains in the last two weeks has been insufficient to put a hold on crop losses.
The 2012 Brazilian grains and oilseed is expected to be below the 2011 record because of the intense drought in the months of December and January, particularly to the south of the country where soybeans and rice suffered most reported the Geography and Statistics Institute, IBGE.
Corn advanced heading for the biggest weekly gain in five as concerns that a renewed heat wave in Argentina and south Brazil may damage crops boosted demand for US grain. Soybeans were little changed.
Argentine corn and soy farms will suffer from hot weather and scant rains for the rest of this week, forecasters said on Tuesday, increasing worries that crop losses will eat into global supplies.