Soren W. Schroder, chief executive officer of Bunge

Presenting at the BMO Capital Markets Farm to Market Conference in New York, Soren W. Schroder, chief executive officer of Bunge, touched briefly on the subject of soybean supply in Brazil and Argentina, and whether the United States will step up its supply to those countries.

“On paper, there will be a flow,” Schroder said. “Margins at the moment, we don’t believe necessarily justify that, but there could be periods in the late summer and fall where some flows of beans will find their way to Argentina. We know that some business has already been done. We don’t believe it will be a volume sufficient to change the overall global crush margin structure.

“But, there’ll be some beans that flow in. If margins justify it, we will participate. But they have to justify it.”

Asked by an analyst whether that would be considered a “dislocation opportunity,” Schroder added, “I think that is a minor one within the bigger dislocation of crush capacity from Argentina to the rest of the world. So essentially, I’m guessing 7 million to 8 million tons of capacity in Argentina that won’t be affected this year because of the crop shortfall will now have to be made up for in Brazil, in the U.S. and in Europe. That’s the dislocation. That’s what’s created the spike in crush margins, and that is what we have to capitalize on and we will.”