The Use of Soybean By-Products as a Biofuel: The Argentine Case

Abstract

Soybean production is immersed within a productive system that cannot be analyzed on its own. A number of political and market factors, both nationally and internationally, explain the development and growth of soybean production throughout the globe. In the case of Argentina, the evolution of the agricultural system of soybean production has been characterized by continuous technological improvement. This has changed the whole agricultural system and set the base for society growing demands for environmental and socially responsible goods. An advancement of the regulatory frameworks has allowed a better control of the future development of land use. In Argentina’s case the law of minimum budget is an example towards that direction. Over the last decades, soybean cultivation has faced unprecedented growth. Since the 70’s soy cultivation areas have grown, representing 37,000 ha in the 1970/1971 campaign to more than 17 million ha today. The Argentinean soy industry is one of the most dynamic economic sectors of the country, generating almost 30 % of the external currencies’ income due to exports and representing almost 30 % of GDP from the agro-industrial sector. Argentina is the world’s leading exporter in soybean oil, soy meal and soy biodiesel and the third one in soybeans.