May 11, 2004

 

 

Argentina's 2003-2004 Corn 56% Collected

 

Farmers in Argentina had collected 56.5% of the 2003-04 corn harvest by Saturday, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange reported. By this time last year, farmers had collected 74.5% the harvest.

 

So far, farmers have produced 8 million tons, according to the exchange.

 

Collectable area stands at 2.2 million hectares and 1.213 million hectares have been collected thus far.

 

The average yield last week was 6.5 tons/hectare, which is down from 6.86 tons a year ago at this time.

 

Based on the average yield thus far, the exchange has estimated total production of between 12.8 million and 13 million tons.

 

The USDA has forecast 2003-04 corn production at 12.5 million tons.

 

Last year, Argentina produced 15.04 million tons of corn, according to the Agriculture Secretariat.

 

SUNSEED

 

Finally, farmers had collected 99.5% of the 2003-04 sunseed crop by Saturday, the exchange said. This is up just a bit from 99.1% a week ago, but it puts the pace of collection exactly inline with the previous year.

 

"A lack of commercial maturity is slowing collection efforts," the exchange said, referring to the state of the crop.

 

Planted area totals 1.92 million hectares, though only 1.89 million hectares will actually be harvested, the exchange said, citing crop damage.

 

The average yield so far this year is 1.77 tons/hectare, compared with 1.61 tons a year ago.

 

Production will total 3.35 million tons, the exchange said.

 

Last year, output totaled 3.6 million tons, according to the exchange.

 

The USDA has estimated 2003-04 sunseed output at 3.2 million tons.