Argentina

Argentina has requested negotiations with the United States on a "suspension" agreement that would avoid imposition of stiff U.S. anti-dumping duties on its biodiesel exports, said the Commerce Department. The negotiations were announced at the same time the department ordered anti-dumping duties of up to 70 percent on the fuel.

Mexico’s deputy trade minister, Juan Carlos Baker, said that a trade agreement with Argentina involving cars and agricultural products could be completed by the end of this year.

A surge in corn production in Brazil and Argentina will power the world to a record harvest in 2017/18, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in forecasting bin-busting output of cereal crops in the upcoming season. "Combined with prospects of relatively weak growth in utilization, another large output is set to keep world cereal stocks at near-record level."

In the rugged hills of Vaca Muerta, Argentina, the locals says that the drinking water makes them vomit and cripples them with painful headaches. The Mapuche, an indigenous group who live in the area, blame pollution from fracking operations, which inject chemicals, along with sand and water, into the ground to release natural gas, reports BBC.

In Argentina, the use of glyphosate increased 1,000 percent between 1994 and 2010, as soybean farmers fought off resistant weeds, says the BBC. With large amounts of the herbicide still being applied to fields, some experts think that it may be responsible for a surge in health problems among rural residents.

Agriculture Minister Ricardo Buryaile said the Argentine government will oversee testing of soybean crops in an agreement to assure Monsanto that its genetically engineered seeds are not being pirated, said Reuters. Monsanto, the largest seed company in the world, had threatened to stop selling its seed in Argentina, the No. 3 soy producer, because of the dispute.

The Argentine weather agency says the late-season rains that swamped the soybean harvest have reduced the crop by 9 million tonnes, or 15 percent, said Reuters.

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.

With 20,000 acres, Indiana farmer Kip Tom "harvests the staples of modern agriculture: seed corn, feed corn, soybeans and data," says the New York Times.

Brazil's soybean belt is critically short of rainfall, in the view of consultancy Oil World, which sees a harvest of 89 million tonnes this season, said AgriMoney.

The Argentinian news portal Infobae says the government is considering whether to create a grain company of its own to compete with the multinational exporters - Cargill, ADM, Bunge and Dreyfus - who dominate farm exports, says AgroSouth News.

Biodiesel production is booming in Brazil and Argentina and will put a pinch on exports of soybean oil, the feedstock for making the biofuel, says the Agriculture Department. Biodiesel is forecast to consume one-third of soy oil in the two countries during this marketing year, double the amount that was used six years ago. "In contrast, exports are forecast to fall from more than half of total use to just over 40 percent over the same period," said USDA'S "Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade" report. Brazil and Argentina are the largest soybean producers in the world after the United States.

Experts say corn plantings could fall by as much as 25 percent in the new season because of the difficulties in obtaining financing, says Agriculture.com.