December 11, 2007

Dryness slows Argentine soy planting

Argentina's 2007/08 soy planting is still impacted by dry weather despite rains that fell last week, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in its weekly report.

The exchange report said last week's showers boosted the outlook for sowing and early plant development in two of the major soy production provinces. 

However, a big part of the agricultural belt is still lacking soil moisture, which is delaying the sowing and restricting growth, the report said.

Farmers had planted 64 percent of the 16.8 million hectares estimated by the exchange for sowing. However, this lags behind last season's sowing pace by 6.6 points.

While the government and exchange have yet to forecast 2007/08 production, the USDA has forecast Argentine output at 47 million tonnes.

Argentina saw a record soy harvest of 47.5 million tonnes for 2006/07.

The country is the world's third-biggest soybean exporter and the largest soymeal and soyoil provider.

Meanwhile, farmers have planted 98.1 percent of the 2.7 million hectares of sunflowers expected to be seeded in the 2007/08 season. The government estimates sunseed output was 3.5 million tonnes in the 2006/07 cycle, when 2.38 million hectares were planted.