Cargill leads ranking of Argentine exporters in 2021

Cargill leads ranking of Argentine exporters in 2021

In 2021, Cargill led the ranking of exporters of all products (grains, meals, and vegetable oils) that fall under the DJVE regime. On the podium is completed by COFCO and Viterra.

Based on data from export permits (DJVE), commitments for exports of grains and by-products (wheat, maize, SB, barley, sorghum, sunflower, rice, peanuts, among grains, plus meals and vegetable oils and some legumes) amounted to 117 Mil MT in the year 2021, almost double the year 2020, but below the record reached in the year 2019. To understand the evolution of the different actors in the export of grains and by-products in Argentina, it’s enough to observe the shipping commitments that each company assumed in each commercial cycle.

Yet in this article, the ranking of grain and by-product exporting companies is seen from another angle; from the role of export commitments throughout several campaigns. Considering that many firms purchase elevation services of other companies, looking at “shipments by port” would not be the best measure to verify the real volume exported by business unit. DJVEs, on the other hand, are unique to each exporter, and therefore are the best indicator.

In 2021, Cargill ended up being the main exporter of grains in Argentina, declaring 15.1 Mil MT of exports of grains, legumes, meal, and vegetable oils (12.9% of the total). In second place was COFCO with 14.4 Mil MT (12.3% of the total). China National Cereals, Oil & Foodstuffs (Cofco) is a Chinese state holding, focused on the purchase of grains for food processing. This company is a key player in China’s food supply and security, which represents a dominant part of the country’s grain imports, and is in charge of their national logistics. It is also partially responsible for storing the state reserves of maize and rice.

Just below, in third place in the ranking is Viterra, with its subsidiary Viterra Argentina exporting 14.35 Mil MT (12.3% of the total). Clarification should be made as, at the end of 2020, Glencore Agriculture was renamed Viterra and the local subsidiary company, Oleaginosa Moreno Hermanos, was renamed Viterra Argentina. Glencore remains the main shareholder of this company which has now changed its name. The local subsidiary, by owning 66.7% of the Renova complex and 100% of the Moreno plants, has a high capacity and efficiency in the industrialization of oilseeds in Argentina, which allows it to rank in the top positions in the export of oil by-products in our country.

Looking through the DJVE prism, we can also analyze the volume of sales abroad by company for each of the main products of the agro-industrial complex.

For example, when it comes to maize exports, the podium is composed of ADM (8.84 Mil MT), Cargill (7.97 Mil MT), and COFCO (7.21 Mil MT). Along with Bunge, Cargill, and Dreyfus, ADM (Archer Daniel Midland) make up the so-called ABCD Group of multinational grain exporting companies. Together with COFCO, Wilmar and Viterra worldwide they are part of the well-known ABCD+ group of the seven largest global trading companies. ADM has had strong participation in Argentina since the purchase of the 80% share package of Toepfer. The facilities it owns in our country do not have oilseed processing, so it specializes in the export of grains. Therefore, its ranked as the third-largest exporter of SB and the fourth of wheat in 2021.

In wheat exports, the main positions were for COFCO (3.16 Mil MT), Cargill (2.39 Mil MT), and Bunge (2.29 Mil MT). In SB exports, the National Cooperative ACA (1.22 Mil MT) was in the lead, followed by another -US based- cooperative: CHS (1.22 Mil MT) and Cargill (0.51 Mil MT). As for oilseed by-products, Viterra occupies the first position due to the aforementioned in the export of oil and meal, both SB and sunflower.

Lastly, for SB oil, the export ranking go hand in hand with the ownership of biodiesel plants, since many of the terminals have the capacity to produce biofuel based on oilseed oil, depending on conditions in the international market. In 2021, Molinos Agro (0.80 Mil MT) ranked second, closely followed by Cargill (0.75 Mil MT). In sunflower oil, the second export place was held by COFCO (0.16 Mil MT), followed closely by AGD (0.10 Mil MT). Second place in SB meal exports is occupied by AGD (3.96 Mil MT), followed by Molinos Agro (3.87 Mil MT). Finally, second place as an exporter of sunflower meal is occupied by AGD (0.21 Mil MT) closely followed by COFCO (0.15 Mil MT).

Source: https://bcr.com.ar/

Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

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