Argentina’s Bean Campaign Off to Slow Start

Argentina current bean marketing year is off to an unusually slow start due to the small caliber of this year’s black bean crop. Drought during the growing season greatly impacted grain size and led to a decrease in exports to Brazil, historically Argentina’s top black bean buyer. Brazil prefers black beans of at least 4 mm in size, but due to the dry weather, Argentina had a higher than normal distribution of smaller sized black beans this year. As a result, Brazilian buyers are presently more interested in acquiring larger-sized domestic black beans.

Another factor dampening Argentine exports is the government’s re-imposition of export taxes. Previously, the government had eliminated these taxes on all agricultural commodities except soybeans. But with the drastic devaluation of the Argentine peso starting in late August, the government re-imposed the agricultural commodity export taxes in order to acquire dollars to help offset the peso’s slide. For dry beans, the tax is four pesos for every US dollar in exports, currently, roughly 10%. Further, in-country sources report that many growers are dissatisfied with bean prices and are opting to store their black beans (the only variety that will keep) rather than sell. USDBC’s full Americas market report is posted on the members only webpage.