BUENOS AIRES, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Argentina's agriculture secretariat said on Tuesday that grain exporters can keep 25% of the foreign currency they generate in September to import soybeans, aiming to address the grain's scarcity by easing strict domestic currency controls.
Argentina is one of the main world exporters of soybean oil and meal, but a historic drought has cut the domestic harvest of soybeans for the 2022/23 season by half, driving the need to import soybeans to be processed for export.
Soybeans imports are up 700% this year, according to official data.
"Exporters in the industry will be allowed to freely dispose of 25% of the foreign currency for 30 days in order to ... guarantee the purchase of soybeans," Agriculture Secretary Juan Jose Bahillo said during a press conference.
The measure will take effect by Monday, he added.
The South American country is facing a complex economic environment, with a large fiscal deficit, scant central bank reserves, triple digit inflation and falling economic activity due to the drought that has pummeled the farming sector.
Currently grains exporters have to convert all dollars earned by exports into pesos within a strict time limit and at an officially agreed exchange rate.
The government, which has previously offered the farm sector preferential exchange rates to encourage exports, also tightly regulates access to foreign currency to pay for imports.
Argentina has 8 million metric tons of soybeans in reserve, Bahillo estimated, from the 25 million tons harvested in the 2022/23 season, far lower than the 44 million tons collected a year earlier.
The production drop led the country to process 26% fewer soybeans in the first half of the year at just 14.9 million tons, according to the CIARA-CEC chamber of exporters and oilseed producers. (Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Marguerita Choy)
