July 31, 2006

Argentina's 2006/07 wheat 85 percent planted

Argentine farmers had planted almost 85 percent of the 2006/07 wheat crop by Friday (Jul 28), the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange reported late Friday.

This puts the planting pace up from 76 percent a week ago but down 5.7 points from a year earlier.

"The advance of the crop, which had been moving ahead at a faster clip than that of the previous year, has now entered into a stage of delays because of a large area of unplanted crops in La Pampa and south-western Buenos Aires," the Exchange said.

Farmers have planted 4,612,870 hectares so far.

The Exchange had expected planted area to total 5.7 million hectares, but dry weather led the Exchange to cut that forecast to 5.45 million hectares.

Last year, area totalled 5.2 million hectares.

In 2005/06, Argentina produced 12 million tonnes of wheat, according to the Exchange. That was down from 16.345 million tonnes a year earlier, when good weather helped lift yields on a bigger planted area.

The US Department of Agriculture has forecast Argentina's 2006/07 wheat crop at 14.3 million tonnes.