Argentina approved to export corn to China

Argentina and China have agreed on new protocols for the export of corn and sorghum that may help the South American country boost its corn exports by as much as a third.

A resolution released yesterday by the Argentinean economy ministry establishes an updated list of pest quarantines that satisfies China's concerns and builds on prior protocols in place for phytosanitary requirements for corn and sorghum exports set in November 2014.

China recently became a major importer of corn, with 18mn t forecast to be imported in the 2022-23 marketing year and 21mn t imported in 2021-22, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). That compares with 7.5mn t of Chinese corn imports during the 2019-2020 marketing year.

China is forecast to import 23mn t of corn in the 2023-24 marketing year, according to the USDA. As China continues to diversify its corn purchases, Argentina provides another origin with an anticipated recovery in corn exports to 40.5mn t in 2023-24 as compared with 25mn t for the current year as forecast by the USDA.

Previously, the US was China's main origin for corn, accounting for 15mn t of its full imports of 21mn t in the 2021-22 marketing year. China approved Brazilian corn for export in May 2022 for the 2022-23 marketing year and consequently purchased 2.2mn t as of March 2023, according to Brazil's Ministry of Development Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC).

By Eduardo Gonzalez