Protests at key Argentina port a problem for exporters

[BUENOS AIRES] A spike in shipping costs and lower profits resulting from a series of union protests at Argentina's Rosario port, one of the world's biggest grain export centres, has raised concerns among the country's agricultural companies.

Strikes by powerful unions representing river pilots, longshoremen and soya crushing workers have been frequent at the port, about 300 kilometres north of Buenos Aires, where some of the world's top grain traders - such as Cargill, Bunge and Louis Dreyfus - operate.

Port reliability is key to the country, which relies heavily on farm export taxes to fund government spending, since the country has been locked out of international bond markets since its massive 2002 sovereign default.