BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA – Argentina, the world’s top soymeal producer, has reached an agreement to export the product to China, according to a Sept. 10 report by Reuters.

It will mark the first time that Argentina has shipped soymeal to China, the world’s largest soymeal consumer.

“This is a historic agreement,” Gustavo Idigoras, president of Argentina’s CIARA-CEC chamber of grain exporting companies, told Reuters.

But Idigoras said the deal still required a two-step process of plant authorizations and then registrations that could take several months.

Argentina is forecast to export more than 30 million tonnes of soymeal in 2019-20, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

China, which only imports a small amount of soymeal each year, is by far the world’s largest consumer of the feed product. In 2019-20, it is forecast to consume 66 million tonnes of soymeal, double the amount of the United States, which ranks second in consumption.