Soy product futures ended mixed Monday. Soymeal futures climbed, recouping some of Friday's declines on spillover support from soybeans and underlying demand. Soyoil futures inched lower, after trading on ether side of unchanged levels. The market was pressured by meal/oil spreading and concerns about slower export demand, while finding support from firmer world vegoil prices and a fresh sales announcement from the USDA, analysts said. CBOT Dec soyoil ended 0.06c, or 0.1%, lower at 52.47 cents a pound, while Dec soymeal traded $8.40, or 2.5%, higher at $348.10 a short ton.(Source: CME)
China Delegation In Argentina To Discuss Farm Goods (Source: CME)
Argentine Agriculture Minister Julian Dominguez met with a trade mission led by his Chinese counterpart on Friday to strengthen ties between one of the world's biggest commodity importers and Argentina, a major exporter of farm goods. After meeting in Buenos Aires earlier in the day, Chinese Agriculture Minister Han Changfu and Dominguez announced the creation of a bilateral farm trade commission to avoid a repeat of a dispute over soyoil earlier this year and to work toward opening the Chinese market to Argentine beef, corn and barley exports. Han addressed about 200 local businessmen Friday night at the country's main grain exchange in the city of Rosario, highlighting a productive visit to Beijing of Argentine president Cristina Fernandez in July. "It was a big success and set a very good foundation for the development of bilateral agricultural relations," Han said.
China is Argentina's No. 2 trading partner, behind only Brazil, but Argentina runs a steep trade deficit with the Asian country despite hefty exports of soybeans and soyoil each year. China is the No. 1 market for Argentina's grain exports and Argentina is China's third largest source of agricultural products behind the U.S. and Brazil. Agriculture shipments to China have surged this year, rising 57% on the year to $5.1 billion during the first nine months of 2010. Farm shipments to China are led by soyoil, sunflower seed oil, soybeans, chicken, frozen fruit, juice and tobacco, Argentina's agriculture minister said in a press release. Ninety percent of Argentina's leading export, soybeans, goes to China, which is expected to buy 10 million tons from Argentina this year, according to the release. Despite being the leading buyer of Argentina's beans, the Chinese buy the bulk of imports from the big multinational grain trading firms who have operations in both South America and Asia.
However, Hong Kong-based Noble Group Ltd set up shop in Argentina about four years ago and has been increasing its operations dramatically, said Cristian Amuchastegui, president of the Rosario Grain Exchange. Noble Group now buys about 5% of the soybeans shipped to China each year, he said. China has also been investing heavily in building modern soybean crushing facilities in recent years and are pushing to just buy raw beans from Argentina and crush them into oil and meal in China, Amuchastegui told reporters. And trade relations between Argentina and China haven't been without the occasional spat. China, the world's biggest buyer of soyoil, resumed purchasing soyoil after lifting a six-month ban on imports last month. China said the ban was due to sanitary concerns, but it was widely seen as retaliation for barriers imposed on Chinese manufactured goods by Argentina.
Chinese soyoil purchases during 2010 will likely be similar to last year's levels, Argentine Deputy Agriculture Minister Lorenzo Basso said in a recent interview. However, exporters had to sell soyoil at a steep discount to attract new buyers such as India during the first half of the year. "The damage is done," Amuchastegui said. But agriculture minister Dominguez was diplomatic and thankful that China had followed through on it's commitment to resume soyoil buying. "You're a man of your word," Dominguez said to Han. With that soyoil dispute apparently resolved, Argentina is looking to open new markets for its farm products as well as attract Chinese investment in biofuels and food processing. Argentine officials say that they are close to inking a deal to resume beef sales to China, which have been closed since a 2006 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Argentina.
However, prospects for beef trade are limited as Chinese diners prefer to sink their chopsticks into pork, chicken and other meats rather than steak. Argentine beef sales will likely focus on innards and high-grade beef cuts for hotels and restaurants, according to the release. Argentina's agriculture ministry said it is also in talks to open corn and barley exports to China. So far, Argentina and China have failed to come to an agreement on sanitary standards which would allow corn exports to China, but the two countries are working on that now, said, Martin Fraguio, head of the Maizar corn growers' association. China has traditionally been a big corn exporter, but drought problems last season and soaring demand saw China import for the first time this year.
Some analysts expect China to continue to be a corn importer in the coming years, opening up big market potential for Argentine sales to China, as well as major corn importers Japan and Korea, which have traditionally relied on China to satisfy their needs, Fraguio said.
Corn up 2 pct on talk of Chinese buying, soy steady
SINGAPORE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - U.S. corn futures rose more than 2 percent as bargain hunters stepped into the market following Friday's slump amid talk that China bought cargoes of Argentine corn.
"The rebound is partly due to talk that China is buying corn and some South American trade going on in that market," said Garry Booth, a traderwith MF Global Australia. "We also had the Iraqi wheat tender on Friday where Australia and U.S. secured more business."
China traders see no imminent Argentina corn imports
BEIJING, Nov 15 (Reuters) - China, the world's second-largest corn consumer, will not import Argentine corn soon as it will take more than two years to lay the groundwork, grain traders and analysts said on Monday.
Argentina's Agriculture Minister Julian Dominguez said on Friday that the world's second-largest corn supplier was in talks to export corn to China.
Argentina negotiates with China over corn exports
BUENOS AIRES, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Argentina's farm minister said on Friday it is in talks with China over exporting corn to the Asian country, which does not currently buy Argentine corn due to curbs on genetically modified varieties.
Argentina is the world's second-biggest corn supplier after the United States. Rumors swirled earlier this year that China had bought Argentine corn, but no shipments were confirmed.
Palm oil up on strong overseas demand
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures rebounded , as strong exports data outweighed concerns over China raising interest rates that kept the market on edge.
"The market rose on fundamental factors in Malaysia including strong exports and weak production," said a trader with a foreign brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
Experts find lost genes in wild soybean
SINGAPORE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Researchers have found genes in wild varieties of soybean that make them resistant to certain diseases and hope to use them in cultivated species of soy to make them more hardy.
They may also have found genes that make wild varieties resistant to drought and saline soil -- traits that cultivated soybean will need because the amount of arable land is shrinking around the world.
India's 2010/11 oilseeds output seen up 12.4 pct-trade
NEW DELHI, Nov 13 (Reuters) - India's summer-sown oilseed output rose 12.4 percent to 15.4 million tonnes in the current crop year that began in July, a leading trade body said on Saturday.
India, the world's top cooking oil importer, grows nine oilseeds with soybean being the main summer-sown crop.
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