July 11, 2006

Argentina's 2005/06 corn crop 98 percent harvested 

Argentina's farmers had harvested 98 percent of the 2005/06 corn crop by Friday (Jul 7), the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange reported Monday.

That puts the collection pace up 1.8 percentage points from a week ago and in line with that of a year ago.

By Friday, farmers had harvested 2,159,210 million hectares, putting production so far at 14.06 million tonnes.

The average yield last week was unchanged at 6.51 tonnes a hectare.

The US Department of Agriculture has forecast Argentina's 2005/06 corn output at 14 million tonnes while the Exchange puts it at 14.4 million tonnes, way down from about 19.62 million tonnes a year earlier.

Farmers planted less corn this season and a drought damaged what was planted. Planted area totals 2.26 million hectares, down from 2.63 million hectares a year ago.

The 2005/06 area, including corn grown for use as animal feed, totals around 2.85 million hectares.

Argentines plant corn September through January and harvest it February through July.