b'OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 20, 2022NORTH AMERICAS TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS NEWSPAPER15Latin American grain exports land in unexpected markets LATIN AMERICA By Matt Miller, AJOT March2022toTRADE BI-ANNUALTwo agricultural shippingtheperiod routesthisyearlinkedwithJuly 2022 compared with the greater frequency the south- same period in 2021.ern regions of South AmericaReuters quoted the Para-with distant Northern Africa:nagua Port Authority, in Bra-ArgentinawithAlgeriaandzilsParanastate,assaying BrazilwithMorocco.Theirthatcornexportsfromthe cargowheat.regionincreasedalmost The reason for these unlikelythreefold during the first half pairingsisnomystery.Theof this year, a jump attributed war in Ukraine severely dis- to the Ukraine war.ruptedgrainexportsfromThewaropenedupLatin thatcountrysbreadbasket,Americanagriculturalexports which supplies about 10% ofinotherwaysaswell.For theworldswheatsupplies,example,Brazildependson as well as 16% of the worldsRussiaforitsfertilizerand corn exports. Russia blockedwas worried sanctions would the Black Sea. Insurance pre- limit supply. So, Brazil did a miumsonshippingskyrock- dealwithMoroccototrade eted, ratcheting up the pricesfertilizer in return for wheat of wheat, corn, and other agri- (MARKETScontinued on cultural commodities. Grainspage 18)importers,especiallypoorer countriesinAfrica,faced criticalshortages,exacer-bated by their own poor har-vests due to drought. DEDICATED. RELIABLE.WiththesekindsofBUILT TO SERVE.uncertaintiesandpricefluc-tuations,itbecamefeasible to transport grain more than 6,000nauticalmilesfrom, say,SanLorenzo,Argen- For more than 35 years, TOTE has provided reliable, tinatoAlgiers,Algeriaortwice-weekly deliveries to Puerto Rico - offering a fromRioGrande,Brazil,tobest-in-class customer experience.Safi,Morocco.Thatssome three times the distance from Odessa to each.n EWM arkEts fors outha MEricang rainSuddenlywheatcoming fromSouthAmericabecame verycompetitive,saidHugo Boudet,adataanalystwith AgFlow,anagriculturaldata provider, which offers agricul-tural cargo tracking as well as a physical cash prices database (www.agflow.com).Inaddi-tion,Boudetadded,Brazil exports of corn surged to the Middle East and North Africa, especially Egypt and Iran.And,Boudetcontinued, soybean exports from Argen-tinaandBraziltoNorthern Africa,havealsoincreased because of heightened demand due to wartime disruptions.Forthesethreeagricul-turalcommodities,Argentina and Brazil are really in demand on the market, he said. Forexample,inablog post,AgFlow,quotingthe Argentinian shipping agency NABSA SA, said that in the DecembertoMayfirstsix month half of the 2021-2022 businesscycle,about5.9 milliontons[of Argentinian wheat] were shipped to Afri-can coasts, almost triple what wassentinthefirsthalfof the previous year.Portdataandexport-importfiguresprovidedby AgFlowshowedaneven moredramaticpicture:A six-foldincreaseinwheat@TOTE_MARITIMEshippedfromvariousports1.877.775.7447 TOTE MARITIMEinArgentinaandBraziltoTOTEMARITIME.COM TOTE_MARITIMEAlgeria and Morocco during'