BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina is on track to start long-awaited corn shipments to China from July, the country's grain export chamber told Reuters on Tuesday, which would be a major boost for the South American nation, the world's no. 3 supplier of the grain.

"Yesterday they confirmed to us that all the conditions are in place to move forward with shipments to China starting in July," said Gustavo Idigoras, the head of the CIARA-CEC chamber, the first time confirming plans were on track to start exports.

Argentina's government previously said it was aiming to start corn exports to China by July, but that there were pending administrative procedures to obtain import licenses.

"The Chinese market is growing with 20 million tons of imports per year. Brazil is the first supplier. So Argentina has all the conditions to be a strong and reliable supplier of corn for animal feed," Idigoras said.