The country has imported 168,000 tons of corn so far in 2023, while in all of last year it imported 149,000 tons.
Uruguay has imported more tons of corn so far in 2023 than all those that it had to acquire during 2022, due to the lower harvests that were obtained by the historic drought that still plagues the country.
Between January 1 and May 12, the country imported 168,000 thousand tons of corn for a value of 51 million dollars. This volume is already greater than that of all of last year, when 149,000 tons were imported for an amount of 38.8 million dollars, according to Blasina y Asociados.
It is not less the fact that, together with the greater volume of imports of this grain, the higher price since 2007at least, when in April it reached the peak of 316 dollars per ton.
Also in April there was the peak tons entered the countrywith a total of 64,610 tons —67% coming from Paraguay—, the highest monthly volume since July 2018, when the extreme drought at that time caused the corn harvest to be the smallest since 2011, with just 309,000 tons.
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Blasina and Associates
A “disastrous” harvest
The volume imported in the last 12 moving months is 310,845 tons, the highest since the 2018/2019 season. However, this figure will continue to rise: importers Cofco and Cargill estimate that the country will need to acquire in other markets between 800,000 and 1 million tons during this yearto compensate for the disastrous harvest that may not exceed 350,000 tons —When the Uruguayan market consumes 1.2 million tons of corn per year.
In this sense, during 2022 the harvest was 878,000 tons and almost 150,000 additional tons were imported, 97% of Paraguayan origin. Meanwhile, so far in 2023, 97,000 tons were imported from Paraguay, 71,000 from Argentina and 1,020 of Brazil. Uruguay will target this last market to supply itself since the record harvest in the neighboring country has already begun to push prices down.
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Blasina and Associates
Source: Ambito
