Argentina: 2024 would close with a 37% growth in oilseed processing

As anticipated last year, the industry's idle capacity reached an all-time high in 2023 due to the drought. In this sense, throughout 2023 the oilseed milling industry worked at less than half of its capacity, marking an idle capacity of 54%. This level not only implied the highest unused capacity in the oil industry's history, but also exceeded by more than 11 points the highest previous level of underutilization, of 43% in 2020. The worst drought in the last sixty years strongly impacted the 2022/23 soybean harvest. The production hit brought soybean crush to its lowest level in 22 years last year, marking a 29% drop compared to 2022. This was also the largest relative decline in the oil industry, higher than the 19% decline in the also fateful 2018. If instead of taking years we were to measure the crush by commercial campaigns (April-March), the decline is reduced to 21% comparing 2022/23 with 2021/22. However, the reduction in the crush in Argentina would have been ...