Indicator N° 1: In 2017, Argentina shipped close to 82 million tons of grains, protein meals and vegetable oils. Which were the companies that sold most of the products? According to data from the Ministry of Agribusiness, last year Argentina sent abroad about 82 million tons (Mt) of grains, protein meals and vegetable oils. Cargill, Cofco and Bunge were the three main exporters; Cargill dispatched about 11.5 Mt,mainly grains, (14% of the total), Cofco approximately 11 million (13% of the total) and Bunge 8.7 Mt (11 % of the total).In the ranking of companies listed in table N° 1, these first three firms are followed by Dreyfus (4th position) with 7.9 Mt, Aceitera General Deheza -AGD- (5th place) with 7.3 Mt and Vicentín (6th place) with 6.9 Mt. Individually, Cofco was the firm that exported the highest volume of grain in Argentina in 2017, with 8.2 Mt. Aceitera General Deheza (AGD) led the ranking of companies that exported protein meals, with 4.9 million tons and Vicentín was the number one as vegetableoil exporter, with 852,952 tons.
Table No. 1 does not include merchandise of Bolivian and Paraguayan origin that arrives from these countries to the Gran Rosario for its transshipment to oceanic vessels. Nor does it include exports by land or in containers. The data show the sum of bulk merchandise shipments of all Argentine port terminals, mainly the Gran Rosario, from where between 78 and 80% of the national exports of grains, meals and vegoils are released annually. Indicator N° 2: The five main exporters of grains, meals and vegoils in Argentina shipped close to 57% of the total. The first ten companies, 88%. The five main exporters of grains, meals and vegoils in Argentina (Cargill, Cofco, Bunge, Dreyfus y AGD) shipped 46.6 million tons, that is, close to 57% of the total. If we consider the ten main exporters, adding Vicentín, ADM, Oleaginosa Moreno, ACA and Molinos Agro), together they shipped 72 million tons, or 88% of the total. Indicator N° 3: What was the position of Argentine cooperative companies? The second degree cooperative known as Asociación de Cooperativas Argentinas (ACA) ranked 9th in the general ranking, dispatching about 4.3 Mt of grain, meals and vegetable oils (5% of the total) abroad. The main first degree cooperative known as Agricultores Federados Argentinos (AFA) sent abroad close to 1.5 Mt, about 2% of the national total. AFA was ranked No. 11 in the total shipments of grains, flours and oils. In grains, ACA ranked 6th in the ranking with 4,032,144 t dispatched. Indicator N° 4: China and Brazil were the main buyers of Argentine grains in 2017. Five nations bought more than half of the grains shipped from Argentina.
Table No. 2 analyzes the destinations of merchandise dispatched by Argentina in 2017. China was the main buyer of grains, with 6.4 Mt, followed by Brazil with 6 Mt. Both countries bought 26% of the grains shipped from Argentina. If we add to these two buyers Vietnam, Algeria and Egypt, the five countries acquired 54% of Argentine grains (almost 26 Mt out of a total of 47.8 Mt). In these statistics, merchandise of Bolivian and Paraguayan origin that arrives to Gran Rosario port terminals for being shipped abroad is included. Table No. 2 also shows the individual shipments of soybeans, corn and wheat. • In soybean, China demanded 87% of the beans shipped by our country in 2017; close to 6,357,000 tons. The importance of the Asian giant in this market is highly relevant. • In wheat, Brazil is the key customer for Argentina, since in 2017 5.1 million tons out of 12.4 million of wheat exports were acquired by our bordering brothers; that is 41%. • In corn, five countries bought 60% of the Argentine cereal in 2017: Vietnam, Algeria, Egypt, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. They acquired 13.6 million out of 23 million tons of the total corn exports. Indicator N ° 5: The batch of buyers of Argentine soybeanmeal and sunflowermeal remains highly atomized As it can be seen in table N° 2, no country purchased more than 11% of the Argentine soybean / sunflower meal. In the case of protein meals, it is an atomized market. In 2017, Vietnam bought the higher volume of the star product of the Argentine trade balance: 3.7 Mt of protein meals. Indonesia followed with 2.8 Mt (9% share of the total dispatched by our country). If we add the five main buyers of Argentine soybean and sunflower meal (Vietnam, Indonesia, Italy, United Kingdom and Poland) they represented 37% of the total exports (12.3 Mt out of 32.7 Mt). In this indicator we are adding 1.7 Mt of Bolivian and Paraguayan by-products that arrived to Gran Rosario port terminals through barges. Exports of the oilseed complex (soybean and sunflower) amounted to 18 billion dollars last year. One in every three dollars of exports is provided by soy and sunflower complex. High-protein soybean meal was the main export product of Argentina in 2017, with a value of 9 billion dollars. Indicator N° 6: Argentina continues to be heavily dependent on India's purchases of soyoil and sunflower oil Finally, we analize the Argentine shipments abroad of soybean and sunflower oils. India is the main buyer and strategic customer for Argentina. In 2017, almost half of the total Argentina vegetable oils exports were destined to India: 2.7 Mt, out of a total of 5.8 Mt (47%). The other customer countries showed appreciably lower purchases: Bangladesh about 717,000 t, Peru 444,000 t, Egypt 241,000 t, Algeria 171,000 t. India continues to be the main buyer of soybean and sunflower oil in the region, since China significantly reduced its purchases in the 2014/2015 marketing year. Once again, those figures included 793,000 tons of Bolivian and Paraguayan vegetable oils that were sent the ports of Gran Rosario to be transferred to ocean vessels.