Argentina's corn production seen close to record

Argentina's 2009/10 corn crop is estimated at 22.2 million tonnes, close to the record harvest three years ago, due to bumper yields, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said Thursday (Jun 3).

 

Argentina, the world's No. 2 corn exporter, suffered a prolonged drought that battered last season's harvest, but plentiful rains have lifted crop yields to a record of 8.54 tonnes per hectare, according to an exchange report.

 

With harvesting close to completion, the exchange raised its previous production forecast of 21.7 million tonnes, saying some crops that had been earmarked for animal feed would be turned over to commercial use due to their high quality.

"This volume was unthinkable at the start of the current harvest," the report said.

 

The updated production forecast is just below the 22.5 million tonnes of the record 2006/07 harvest.

 

By Thursday, the country's growers had gathered 83.2 % of the estimated commercial-use corn area of 2.6 million hectares, up 2.8 percentage points from the previous week but still lagging last season's pace by 8.9 points.

 

Argentine farmers are also nearing the end of the 2009/10 soy harvest and the exchange held its forecast for a record crop of 54.8 million tonnes. By Thursday, they had brought in beans from 95% of harvestable lands, advancing 3.8 percentage points from the prior weekly report.

 

The exchange said a forecast for dry weather over the next week should help growers bring in the remaining crops, most of which are in the northern provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero.

 

But such dryness has slowed 2010/11 wheat sowing in southern parts of Buenos Aires province, which accounts for about half the country's wheat production, as well as La Pampa province and the southern parts of Cordoba.

 

However, rains have moistened soils over the last two weeks in other important growing areas and were excessive in some places, the report said.

 

"Within this context, due to excesses or a lack of soil moisture, sowing slowed down in the first few days of the week reaching 16.5% of the estimated area of 4.2 million hectares," it said.

 

The exchange has not yet forecast 2010/11 wheat output but the USDA forecasts a crop of 12 million tonnes.