Incidents of theft and extortion are on the rise at Argentina’s main port of Rosario causing increased shipping costs, delays at terminals and truckers refusing to transport grain along the delivery route. The situation is threatening the struggling country’s main source of dollar income as central bank reserves are at an eight-year low. Thieves are targeting grain cargoes including deliveries to Cargill and ADM along the route to Rosario which handles 80% of the country’s agricultural exports and where the murder rate has doubled in the past three years. The losses in cargo and trucker’s demands for higher pay to make the deliveries has sent grain shipping prices up 35% over the past year according to Interior and Transport Ministry data. Rail transport is also being targeted. A train transporting 2,730 tons of soybeans valued at $550,000 was derailed and looted after thieves left an object on the rails. Compounding the problem is the mandatory terminal and ship inspections by the government in an effort to curb drug trafficking which can cause a loaded ship to be delayed for days waiting for inspectors at an extra cost of up to $100,000. To read further:
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