A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF THE PRICING MECHANISMS USED IN THE SOYBEAN SUBSECTOR IN URUGUAY

Since 1974, Uruguay has adopted an export-led growth strategy of deployment. Macroeconomic policies implemented toward this general objective have achieved impressive results in improving the general economic situation of the country. Increases in nontraditional manufactured exports have been largely responsible for the improvement in the overall growth performance and have brought about a substantial diversification of the export structure. Soybeans have also appeared recently as another nontraditional potentially exportable agricultural product. However, soybean production in Uruguay has not developed enough to make soybean exports an important and permanent source of foreign exchange. Given the need to diversify the export structure of the country, it is important to study why soybean has not developed more in Uruguay. The overall objective of this study is to investigate selected aspects of the Uruguayan soybean subsector in order to provide information for use in evaluating alternative forms of market organization and operation which could lead to improvement in export performance.