May 11, 2004

Argentina's 2003-2004 Soybeans 64% Collected

As of Saturday, farmers in Argentina had collected 64.4% of the soybean crop, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange reported Monday.

The pace of collection is down from a year ago at this time, when farmers had harvested 73.8% of the crop. However, last year's crop measured 12.8 million hectares of planted beans while this year's area stands at 14.4 million hectares, according to the exchange.

As of Saturday, farmers had harvested 9.287 million hectares of soybeans.

The average yield last week was 2.38 metric tons per hectare, down from 2.85 tons a year ago at this time.

As of Saturday, farmers had harvested 22 million tons of soybeans, the exchange said.

Farmers will probably produce 32.5 million tons of 2003-04 soybeans, the exchange has forecast.

This estimate is down from the 35 million tons forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture last month.

If the exchange's estimate holds, it would put output down about 3 million tons from last year, when Argentina produced 35.27 million tons, according to the exchange.

This year's crop is smaller because an extended drought earlier in the campaign drained the crop of much-needed moisture. This, in turn, caused yields to decline from a year ago.

The exchange estimates that the average yield this year will total 2.3 metric tons per hectare, down about 17% from 2.78 tons/hectare a year ago.