Trucks loaded with grain were blocked from getting to Argentina’s largest port on 29 June due to a truck driver protest against high fuel prices bringing the country’s agricultural exports almost to a halt, Reuters reported.
Protests by truck owner organisations over high diesel prices and fuel shortages blocked loaded trucks on different roads in the province of Santa Fe, home to port city Rosario, the gateway for around 80% of Argentine agricultural exports, according to the local Road Safety Agency.
Rosario terminals on the Paraná River received 889 grain trucks, 76% lower than the previous year, the Rosario Grains Exchange said.
“As of (29 June), we are missing more than 400,000 tonnes (of merchandise), so we are close to running out of grains,” Gustavo Idigoras, the head of the grain exporters and crushers chamber in Buenos Aires, told Reuters.
Following the protest, the country’s transport minister Alexis Guerrera said that the diesel shortage should be resolved within 15 to 20 days with the arrival of ships carrying fuel imports, the 29 June report said.
Argentina is the world’s top exporter of processed soyabean oil and meal, the second largest exporter of corn, and a major global supplier of wheat and beef, according to the report, and more than 80% of grains bound for export are transported by trucks in the country.
