April 5, 2004

Argentina's 2003-04 Soybean Crop 19% Collected

Argentina's farmers had collected 19% of the 2003-04 soybean crop, the Agriculture Secretariat said Friday.
 
This puts the pace of collection up from 8% last week but down from 25% a year ago at this time.
 
Last year, however, planted area for soybeans stood at 12.6 million hectares, well below the 14.1 million estimated for this year.
 
The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange, which normally releases its crop estimates over the weekend, has estimated area at 14.4 million hectares.
 
"The climate has been very disparate in distinct regions," the Secretariat said. "Rain has been very heterogeneous, which causes a great degree of variability (in the crop's quality) in each region, and productivity is hard to quantify right now."
 
Last month, the Secretariat attempted to quantify production, estimating that farmers will eventually produce 34.7 million metric tons of soybeans this year, just under the 34.8 million produced a year ago.
 
As of Friday, farmers had harvested 2,734,800 hectares of soybeans, according to the Secretariat.
 
Some 40,030 hectares are considered too damaged to collect.
 
According to the exchange, whose data is almost a week old, the average soybean yield stands at 2.41 tons per hectare, down almost 20% from 3.04 tons a year ago at this time.
 
Based on a calculation of these yields, and the exchange's estimate for planted area, one could forecast that Argentina will produce 33.98 million tons of soybeans this year.
 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates 2003-04 Argentine soybean production at 36.5 million tons, but analysts here unanimously reject this estimate as overly optimistic.