Argentine soy crush seen normal Monday

By Helen Popper

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's key soy-crushing plants and grains exporters will resume normal operations on Monday following a three-week farm strike, the executive director of an industry chamber said on Thursday.

"The immediate (issue) will be resolved in three days ... that being the rebuilding of the minimum stock to start operating," Alberto Rodriguez, head of the CIARA chamber of vegetable oil producers, told the Latin America Investment Summit in Buenos Aires.

"On Monday we should be at full operating capacity," he said, adding that some 75 grains boats were waiting for loading in or around the country's ports as a result of the strike.

Argentina is the world's top supplier of soyoil and soymeal, but exports and soy-processing production have been badly affected by the farmers' strike against a new system of variable rate export taxes on soy and sunseed sales abroad.

The immediate effect of the new system was to raise export taxes on soy and sunseeds, but the tax rate could also fall if prices went down.

Between the start of the protest and last Friday, boats with a capacity of 2.2 million tonnes had not been able to load as scheduled in Argentina, Rodriguez said.

Farmers and traders have criticized the sliding-scale system, saying it undermines futures markets and acts as a disincentive to production.

"We don't like export taxes, and we don't like the increase in export taxes," Rodriguez said. "(This) could have an impact on investments in the agricultural sector because the profit expectations are limited."  Continued...