November 29, 2007

Argentina shuts wheat export registry for five days
 

Argentina has closed the wheat export registry for five working days while the government studies the damage to the new crop from recent frosts, an Agriculture Secretariat spokesman said on Wednesday (November 28, 2007).

With export declarations extremely high, the government is concerned that frost damage may reduce production and affect domestic supply.

As of November 26, exporters had declared almost 6.5 million tonnes of 2007-08 wheat for export, according to the Agriculture Secretariat. However, exporters flooded the registry with additional export declarations Tuesday, bringing the total to about 7 million tonnes, according to local press reports. About 10 million tonnes of wheat are expected to be available for export from the new crop, according to analysts.

Two weeks ago, the Agriculture secretary opened the wheat export registry, which had been closed since March, and the pace of export declarations has been stunning.

In addition, a sharp frost earlier this month has caused concern over widespread damage to the crop, but the affect appears to be limited.

"Abundant rainfall and higher temperatures over the past weeks caused a significant recuperation of the (wheat) crop in the bulk of the planted area...allowing the crop to withstand the negative affects that could have been caused by the frosts over the past 15 days," the Secretariat said in its monthly crop report last Thursday.

The Secretariat sees 2007-08 wheat production of 15.4 million tonnes. The US Department of Agriculture sees 14.7 million tonnes of wheat coming from the Pampas this season.