Argentine workers who demand increased wages blocked the nation's export terminals for soybeans and grains on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports.
Laborers demand their pay be raised to a monthly minimum of 5,000 pesos ($1,250) beginning February 1 for responsibilities with trucks, docks and construction.
"All ports are blocked for an indefinite time" by the city of Rosario, according to Walter Cabrera, a General Labor Confederation official.
More than 60 percent of soybean shipments from Argentina pass through ports in Rosario's surroundings and the nation is the world's third-largest shipper of the commodity. The vast majority of laborers at ports for grain and soybeans belong to the union that also conducted a two-day protest in December.
Commodity prices might be impacted by the protest should the demonstrations persist for days, according to Ricardo Baccarin, the president of Panagricola Safici, a Buenos Aires-based broker.
"The whole shipment process of products going from farms to ports is interrupted by protests like this, because nobody sends products to places with pickets," he said.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m., soybean futures were up 1.84 percent, an 0.11 cent increase to $13.855 per bushel.
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