April 27, 2012

Argentina's 2011-12 soy, corn harvests forecasts down

As worsening yields lowered expectations, Argentina's 2011-12 soy and corn output forecasts on Thursday (Apr 26) was cut another million tonnes each off.

Buenos Aires Grains Exchange reduced its soy harvest estimate to 43 million tonnes, nearly 13% down from last season's production due to the impact of a severe drought in December and January.

The South American country's production of corn, which was even harder hit by the dry spell, is now forecast at 19.8 million tonnes, the exchange said in its weekly crop report.

"The poor results obtained in numerous areas force us to reduce our estimate," the report said, putting average soy yields at 2.36 tonnes per hectare.

Farmers have brought in 56.1% of the area planted with soy, up a hefty 19 percentage points from a week earlier.

Early frosts raised further concern about the country's soy crop, but the grains exchange said the sub-zero temperatures had not caused significant damage because crops were nearly mature.

With regard to corn, the exchange said expectations for an average yield of 5.65 tonnes per hectare would represent the lowest productivity level in 11 seasons.

Growers are making soy gathering their priority and corn harvesting has been slow, the report said. So far, they have harvested 41.3% of commercial-use corn area, just 1.9 points more than last week and lagging the previous season's pace by 6.1 points.

Argentina is the world's second-biggest corn supplier after the US and the No. three provider of soy.