November 5, 2007

 

Argentina 2007/08 wheat output at 15.2 million tonnes

 

 

Argentina will grow 15.2 million tonnes of wheat during the 2007/08 season, up 1 million tonnes from last season, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange said in its weekly crop report Friday (November 2).

 

Area planted with wheat this season was down 1.8 percent from last season, but good conditions this season and drought last year will result in higher yields from the new crop, the exchange said.

 

Farmers planted 5.4 million hectares of wheat this season, according to the exchange.

 

To date, 5.5 percent of the 2007/08 wheat crop has been harvested, 4.3 percentage points behind the pace at this time last year. An unusually cold winter slowed development of this year's crop, the exchange said.

 

According to the exchange, about 75 percent of the wheat crop is in good or very good condition, up one percentage point from last week. About 18.5 percent is in average condition, 6 percent is in poor condition and 1.5 percent is in very poor condition.

 

The Agriculture Secretariat sees this year's wheat crop producing 14.5 million to 15.3 million tonnes of the grain while the US Department of Agriculture sees production of 14.5 million tonnes, down slightly from 14.6 million tonnes last season.

 

Soy

 

Rainfall over the past week allowed soy planting to surge ahead.

 

Argentina's farmers have planted 16 percent of the record 16.8 million hectares seen going to soy this season, according to the exchange. The planting pace is one percentage point ahead of the pace at this time last year.

 

This year's soy area is expected to be up 4.3 percent from the 16.1 million hectares planted in 2006/07, according to the exchange.

 

Corn

 

Corn planting wrapped up in the central farm belt this week while seeding in the peripheral areas is moving forward quickly, according to the exchange.

 

As of Friday (November 2), farmers had planted 72.3 percent of the 2007/08 corn crop, 8.3 percentage points ahead of the pace a year earlier.

 

The USDA forecasts production of 22.5 million tonnes, up from 21.8 million tonnes last season.

 

Sunseed

 

To date, farmers have planted 58.8 percent of the 2.67 million hectares seen going to sunseeds, four percentage points ahead of last year's pace, according to the Buenos Aires exchange.