The newly inaugurated president of Argentina, Maurico Macri, carried out a campaign promise by eliminating export taxes on corn, wheat and beef and cutting the soybean tax 5 percentage points. Argentina is the third-largest corn and soybean exporter in the world, the leader in exports of soy oil and soy meal and one of the largest wheat exporters, too.
“The government estimates the country’s grains production will grow to 130 million tonnes per year from the current 100 million tonnes during Macri’s first term, ending in 2019,” said Reuters. There are estimates that farmers will expand corn plantings 10 percent because of the change in export rules. Corn planting can run through mid-January. “Today, as I promised during the campaign, I am betting on the farm sector’s ability to increase production,” Macri told farmers during a meeting in Pergamino, a town in the grain belt.