The Argentine Oil Industry Chamber (CIARA, for its Spanish initials) and the Center of Cereal Exporters (CEC, in Spanish) announced that the Argentine agricultural sector’s total exports in July 2025 amounted to US$4.1 billion. 

This figure represents a 57% increase compared to July 2024 and a 20% bump compared to June of this year. The accumulated annual raise is 43%. According to a CIARA statement, exports in July 2025 are “the best since records started being kept in 2002.” 

Until President Milei announced a “permanent” reduction in export duties last Saturday, June 2025 was initially the last month in which agricultural companies were set to benefit from lower taxes for soy and corn exports after the reduction was issued last January. 

There was a large jump in July because firms that had pre-sold their exports before higher duties were set to be reinstated are required by law to turn 95% of their foreign currency earnings into pesos by a set deadline (the process is known as liquidación de divisas). 

According to CIARA, the pesos agro-companies receive from this process are what allow them to continue operating in the sector by buying more grains, which will later be exported as is or as an industrial byproduct.

Milei announces “permanent” reduction in export duties

Milei announced the export duty reduction in a speech on Saturday at the Rural Expo, an annual fair of Argentina’s farming sector.

“This seeks to boost farming, the economy’s most productive sector, which has been severely punished by these taxes over the last 20 years,” the president said. He added that the reductions were “permanent” and promised they would not return while he is in power.

Permanent elimination of export duties has been an ongoing demand of the country’s powerful farming sector for decades. Governments have used them not only to collect money but also to cap local food prices. They have been implemented as negotiation tactics as well, as lower export duties encourage exporters to liquidate their U.S. dollar sales, which add to the country’s international reserves.

Milei’s administration initially cut export duties for some agricultural commodities in January. The break, initially intended to last until June and later extended to July, was applied to soybeans, corn, sunflowers, sorghum, and all their byproducts. Last month, the administration reinstated higher export duties for an array of products, sparking criticisms from farming associations.