August 31, 2004

Argentina's 2003-04 Corn Crop 99% Collected As Of Friday
 
For the fourth week in a row, Argentine farmers made little progress on their efforts to finish collecting the country's 2003-04 corn crop, the Agriculture Secretariat said Monday.
 
As of Friday, farmers had collected 99% of the crop, a figure that has not changed since July 30.
 
A total of 2,092,710 hectares have been collected so far, while 712,088 hectares have been lost because of bad weather, disease or other problems, the Secretariat said.
 
The area of commercially tradable corn stands at 2.806 million hectares, according to the Secretariat. However, much of area is used to collect corn used for animal feed in the domestic market.
 
According to the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange, collectible area measured 2.172 million hectares. All of this had been collected about a month ago, according to the exchange. The exchange said output totaled 13.109 million metric tons.
 
The average yield was 6.04 tons per hectare, down from 6.7 tons a year ago. According to the Secretariat, the average yield is 6.0 tons/hectare.
 
The Secretariat sees 2003-04 corn production at 12.75 million tons, down from about 15 million a year earlier.
 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast 2003-04 corn output at 12.5 million tons and 2004-05 production at 15.5 million.
 
Farmers are just beginning to plant the 2004-05 crop.