* Union leader says reaches wage deal with exporters
* Protest delayed loading of about 20 grains ships (Recasts with protest lifted)
By Maximiliano Rizzi and Nicolas Misculin
BUENOS AIRES, March 4 (Reuters) - Argentine dock workers reached a wage deal on Friday and called off a three-day-old protest that paralyzed two major soy export terminals and stopped 20 grains ships from loading, a union leader said.
The blockade by members of a dock workers' cooperative gridlocked two crushing plants and export terminals in the Rosario agricultural hub, one of the world's largest and the main exit point for Argentine soy.
"Today we're pleased because we've reached a deal and the protest measures are being lifted in Terminal 6 and Cargill," Herme Juarez, head of the dock workers' cooperative, told Reuters.
He declined to give further details of the agreement recahed with the companies.
The blockade by members of Juarez's cooperative targeted a
terminal north of the city of Rosario shared by Bunge
The two terminals account for about 16 percent of the South American country's soyoil-processing capacity. Argentina is the world's biggest supplier of soyoil and soymeal.
Earlier on Friday, port workers suspended a brief protest that halted shipping activity in the southern grains ports of Quequen and Bahia Blanca, SOMU shipping workers' union Omar Suarez told Reuters.
He said the union wanted exporters to use a logistics company that hires its members, but had called off the protest following a request from the government.
Both Bahia Blanca and Quequen are key movers of Argentine wheat, especially since the country's 2010/11 harvest ended last month.
FACTBOX-Argentine grains protests [ID:nN04203245]
FACTBOX-Capacity of big oilseed crushers [ID:nN04230476]
GRAPHIC on exporters: http://link.reuters.com/ket72p
At the Chicago Board of Trade, U.S. soy futures <0#S:> ended mixed, buoyed late in the session by concerns over the Rosario dock workers' protest. The market had closed when the wage deal was reached.
Hefty wage demands -- traditionally negotiated in March and April -- have become common in Argentina in the past five years as annual inflation soared, hitting around 25 percent in 2010, according to private estimates.
Argentina is the world's No. 3 soybean exporter and a major supplier of corn and wheat. About 80 percent of its soyoil and meal is produced around Rosario, located 180 miles (300 km) north of the capital Buenos Aires. (Additional reporting by Maximilian Heath and Helen Popper; Writing by James Matthews; Editing by David Gregorio) (helen.popper@thomsonreuters.com; +54 11 4318 0655; Reuters Messaging: helen.popper.reuters.com@reuters.net))