China-based trading firms snapped up 10 cargoes of Argentine soybeans in a rare buying spree this week, adding to the nation’s reliance on South American supply as it avoids US crops, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The move came after President Javier Milei’s government on Monday announced the temporary suspension of export taxes on many of the country’s key crops, in an effort to boost the supply of dollars in the foreign-exchange market and ease pressure on the peso. Exempt from those taxes, soybean farmers will reap, in pesos, an extra 25% for each dollar they get in revenue.