February 15, 2006

 

Argentina's farmers finish planting 2005/06 soy crop

 

 

Farmers have finished planting Argentina's 2005/06 soybean crop, the latest Agriculture Secretariat data show.

 

Area totaled 15,182,142 hectares, up 782,000 hectares from a year ago.

 

The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange has estimated area at 15.62 million hectares, up from 14.67 million hectares a year earlier.

 

The US Department of Agriculture has forecast Argentina's 2005/06 soybean output at a record 40.5 million tonnes, up from the previous record of 39 million tonnes a year ago. The Exchange sees output at 40 million tonnes.

 

The USDA sees Argentina's soybean area at 15.2 million hectares this season, compared with 14.4 million a year earlier.

 

 

Corn

 

Farmers had sown 99 percent of the 2005/06 corn crop by Thursday, unchanged from the previous week and year.

 

The Secretariat sees area at 3.006 million hectares, down from 3.348 million hectares a year earlier.

 

Low corn prices and high production costs led to a decrease in area.

 

As of Thursday farmers had planted 2,998,380 hectares.

 

Corn in many provinces was damaged because of the drought, and yields are lower than expected in most areas. Argentina's top corn organisation, Maizar, sees 2005/06 production at 14 million tonnes, down from 20 million tonnes a year ago.

 

The USDA has forecast Argentina's 2005/06 corn production at 15.5 million tonnes, down from 19.5 million in 2004/05.

 

The Secretariat has forecast corn production this season at between 13 million and 14 million tonnes.

 

The Exchange has estimated planted area this season at 2.23 million hectares, compared with 2.63 million hectares a year earlier. The Exchange's estimate does not include corn grown strictly for use as animal feed.