November 7, 2012

Argentina's grain harvest affected by floods

Flood in Argentina's main farm land provinces have affected 14 million hectares of land, threatening grain harvest.

Farming leaders said that soils continue to be affected due to excessive rain and flash floods and they fear that the record crop expected for the 2012-2013 campaign is in danger.

"The last rains in the centre of the country, the main farming region, caused rivers to overflow and left soils in a dire condition to move forward with the sowing of soy and corn," said Luis Etchevere, head of the Rural Society.

"Over 11 million hectares are under water in Buenos Aires province and another three million hectares of crops are affected in Santa Fe province. The ideal dates for sowing have passed and expectations for a record crop decrease," he said.

Argentina's Agriculture Ministry announced in mid-October that 2013 could see a record harvest in grain crops with approximately 28 million tonnes of corn and 58 million tonnes of soy expected to be exported.

Argentina is the world's third largest soy exporter behind Brazil and the US and a leader in global exports of soy-meal and soy-oil.

There is growing concern that a series of heavy storms and planting delays will affect Argentina's soy crop.

To date, just 4% of the record 19.7 million hectares seen going to soy this season have been planted, down nine percentage points from a year earlier.

A brutal drought in the US this year has underpinned high global grain prices, and international markets are counting on record harvests in Argentina and Brazil to rebuild depleted food stocks.

Delays in corn planting are also causing some concerns, but Martin Fraguio, of the corn growers' association Maizar, said that higher yields will offset what is expected to be a small reduction in planted area due to heavy rain.

Maizar is expecting corn production to reach 25 million to 28 million tonnes, up from the 21 million tonnes harvested during the drought-ravaged 2011-12 season. The previous record of 24 million tonnes was set in the 2010-11 season.

The wet conditions are also complicating the winter wheat harvest which recently kicked off.

Some fields are at risk for outbreaks of fungus and other crop diseases but conditions are very good in most areas, according to the Buenos Aires exchange.