US soybeans are so cheap that even rival Argentina is buying them

(Bloomberg) — Argentina, the world’s top exporter of processed soybean meal and oil, is set to bring in whole beans from the U.S. for the first time since 2019 as falling U.S. prices make them the cheapest in the world.

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The South American nation has purchased 88,400 metric tons of beans to ship this season, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The move comes as the harvest of a record US crop was getting under way.

“It surprised the hell out of me,” said John Baize, an independent analyst who also advises the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

US shipments from New Orleans in October, for example, were about $395 a ton on board, about $16 a ton cheaper than soybeans from Argentina, according to Commodity3 data.

Argentina’s crushers, including Glencore’s Viterra Inc., Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Co., often operate at high idle capacity after industrial expansions over the past two decades have outstripped agricultural output growth as growers face high taxes and exchange rate distortions.

Crushers typically supplement local supplies with purchases from regional neighbors, mainly Paraguay and Brazil, with these imports particularly high this season, according to the Rosario Board of Trade.

Low water levels on the Paraguay River are now limiting the volume of barge shipments to Argentina. That context could have driven the sale of U.S. soybeans to Argentina or could be a reporting error in the USDA data, Baize said. Shipments of local Argentinian supplies also tend to slow down at this time of year after the harvest which is contested around June.

The USDA did not respond to questions about the sale.

–With assistance from Gerson Freitas Jr..

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