BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) – The price of farm chemicals should hold steady next year because of an expected stabilization in global grain prices, says the head of Argentine farm chemicals company Atanor.
Argentina is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of corn, wheat and soybeans. The country’s farmers were hard hit last year when soaring fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide prices drove many to skimp on chemicals to reduce costs.
“Agrochemical prices mirror grains prices,” said Atanor president Miguel Angel Gonzalez.
“For agrochemical prices to rise, grains prices have to rise too and at the moment commodities prices are steady.”
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Argentina’s crucial farming sector has been badly affected by a prolonged drought and an ongoing dispute between the centre-left government and farmers over soy export taxes and wider agricultural policy.
However, Gonzalez said the conflict should not affect Atanor, which also operates in neighboring Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
“If you don’t give the farming sector the conditions it needs to be profitable, farmers won’t grow anything apart from soybeans.”
Argentina, the world’s top supplier of soyoil and meal and the No. 3 exporter of unprocessed soybeans, has seen a rapid growth in the amount of land dedicated to the oilseed in the last 10 years.
Argentine farmers say policies such as export taxes and price controls fuel soy’s dominance, deterring investment in alternative crops.
