February 8, 2010

Mexico Sinaloa's 2009-10 fall-winter corn crop seen up

Mexico's upcoming 2009-10 fall-winter corn harvest in the key grain state of northern Sinaloa is forecast to rise 4.2% to at least 5 tonnes, the Agriculture Ministry's statistical arm SIAP said Friday (Feb 5).

This compares with output in the 2008-09 fall-winter crop of 4.8 million tonnes, SIAP said in a report based on the latest sowing estimates for the crop, for which harvesting normally starts in late April.

The latest planting data show sowings for the 2006-07 fall-winter crop at 471,500 hectares, about the same as seen in the previous crop but with expectations for much better yields.

Average yields in the new white corn harvest are forecast to reach 10.6 tonnes per hectare, compared to average yields in the last harvest of 9.9 tonnes/hectare.

Mexico's agriculture year for grains is made up of the fall-winter crop - which is planted between October and December last year and harvested in May and August - and the spring-summer crop, which is planted between December and February and normally harvested between October and December.