March 1, 2005

 

 

Argentina's 04-05 corn crop 4.8 per cent collected

 

Farmers in Argentina had collected 4.8 percent of the 2004-05 corn crop by Saturday, according to the latest data from the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange.

 

As of Saturday farmers had collected 122,960 hectares, putting production thus far at 735,838 metric tons. The average yield so far is 5.98 tons per hectare.

 

Farmers planted 2.565 million hectares, compared with 2.28 million a year earlier.

 

Last year Argentina produced 13.1 million metric tons of corn, according to the exchange.

 

The US Department of Agriculture has forecast Argentina's 2004-05 output at 17.5 million tons while the Agriculture Secretariat has put it at 19 million tons.

 

Farmers will harvest at least 18.6 million tons this year, according to the exchange.

 

The exchange expects yields to total a record 7.3 tons per hectare thanks to favorable weather. In some areas yields will even surpass 10 tons/hectare, the exchange has said.

 

If climatic conditions prove favorable, the harvest could surpass 19 million tons, the exchange said.

 

Sunseed

 

Meanwhile, farmers had collected 15.8 percent of the 2004-05 sunseed harvest by Saturday.

 

That puts the pace of collection down from 21 percent a year earlier.

 

The average yield so far is 1.27 tons per hectare, down almost 37 percent from a year ago. Yields are down mainly because of unfavorable weather earlier in the season.

 

As of Saturday, farmers had harvested about 296,060 hectares of sunseed, putting production so far at 414,392 metric tons.

 

Source: USDA