July 1, 2009

Argentine farmers are likely to widen its soy plantings for the harvest in early 2010 as drought is forcing them away from wheat sowings, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World forecast on Tuesday (June 30).

The firm believes that "there is a possibility that soybean plantings for the 2009-10 crop could reach 19-20 million hectares, up steeply from a harvested area of only 16.5 million hectares this year."

It temporarily projects Argentina's 2009-10 soy harvest will stage a major recovery in early 2010, rising to 49.0 million tonnes from the drought-reduced 32.7 million tonnes harvested this year.

Drought is currently preventing Argentine wheat plantings and the country's wheat sowings are only about 50 percent of the level achieved this time in 2008, it said.

By June 24, Argentine farmers had planted only 920,000 hectares of wheat, down from 1.82 million hectares last year and 2.99 million hectares this time two years ago, it said.

The wheat area may be reduced even further and a large part could ultimately be planted with soy if the drought ends in time, it said.