April 27, 2004

Argentina's 2003-04 Corn Crop 45% Collected
 
Farmers had also collected 45% of the 2003-04 corn crop by Friday, the Agriculture Secretariat reported. The pace of collection is up from 41% a week ago but down from 67% a year ago.
 
A total of 1,184,390 hectares have been collected so far, while 263,638 hectares have been lost because of bad weather, disease or other problems.
 
Area stands at 2.888 million hectares, according to the Secretariat.
 
According to the exchange, collectable area stands at 2.2 million hectares. The exchange said 45.9% of the crop had been harvested by Saturday.
 
The average yield so far is 6.66 tons per hectare, which is down from 7.11 tons a year ago at this time, the exchange said.
 
Based on the overall average yield so far, the exchange has estimated total production of 12.8 million tons.
 
The Secretariat sees 2003-04 corn output at 12.4 million tons, down from about 15 million a year ago.
 
The USDA has forecast output of 12.5 million tons.