Agribusiness and Cereals Production in Argentina

Argentina is a presidential republic located along the southeastern coastline of South America. With a total territory of 2.78 million square kilometers, Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world. Moreover, Argentina is dominated by the rugged Andes Mountains to the west, 4.989 kilometers of coastline, the Pampas plains, and the Patagonian plateau. Likewise, the country shares borders with Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile.

Agribusiness and Cereals Production in Argentina

Currently, Argentina has a total population of 44.3 million citizens, with an average age of 32 years. Furthermore, about 92% of the population lives in an urban setting, notably the capital city of Buenos Aires with its 15 million inhabitants. The annual gross domestic product (GDP) of Argentina is US$920 billion (PPP), but the national economy has experienced sluggish and even negative growth in recent years. As of today, the national economy is divided into 11% agriculture, 28% manufacturing, and 61% services. Meanwhile, the national labor force is divided into 5% working in the agriculture industry, 29% working in the industrial sector, and 66% working in services. Similarly, the national agriculture industry utilizes about 54% of the national territory, while another 11% is forested.In terms of natural resources, Argentina has lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium, and arable land. Within manufacturing, the national industry is focused on food processing, motor vehicles, textiles, chemicals, printing, metallurgy, and steel. Simultaneously, the country’s agricultural industry has as main products sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat, and livestock.In terms of trade, Argentina is the world’s 44th largest export economy. During 2016, the country imported US$55.8 billion worth of goods and exported US$59 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$3.2 billion. Furthermore, that same year, the country’s main export, representing 17% or US$10 billion of the total, was soybean meal. On the other hand, Argentina’s main import, representing 8.3% or US$4.6 billion of all international purchases, were cars. Meanwhile, Argentina’s main trading partners are China, the United States, Brazil, and the European Union.Unfortunately, in Argentina, some 1.7 million people suffer from undernourishment. In recent years, the average per capita protein intake of animal origin amongst the Argentine population has been 66 grams daily. Simultaneously, land distribution and output in the country have evolved throughout the last half century. Back in 1961, permanent pastures and meadows in Argentina covered 118.4 million hectares, while arable land covered 18.6 million hectares and permanent crops covered 875.000 hectares. More recently, by 2016, permanent pastures and meadows had decreased to cover 108.5 million hectares, while arable land represented 39.2 million hectares and permanent crops accounted for 1 million hectares.Likewise, the domestic cereals market in Argentina has evolved during the last half century. Back in 1961, the country devoted approximately 10.3 million hectares of land to the production of cereals and produced 14.5 million metric tons annually. In 2016, Argentina devoted 13.2 million hectares of land to cereals production and yielded some 67 million metric tons.(Read more about Trade, Macroeconomics & Agribusiness in Chile)