April 5, 2004

 
Argentina's 2003-04 Corn Crop 33% Collected
 
Argentina's farmers had also collected 33% of the 2003-04 corn crop, the Secretariat reported. This puts the pace of collection up from 27% a week ago but down from 48% a year ago.
 
A total of 899,340 hectares have been collected so far, while 193,340 hectares have been because of bad weather, disease or other problems.
 
Area stands at 2.88 million hectares, according to the Secretariat.
 
According to the exchange, collectable area stands at 2.215 million hectares, though this does not include corn grown for feed.
 
The average yield so far is 6.81 tons per hectare, which is down from 7.26 tons a year ago at this time, the exchange said last week.
 
Based on average yields so far, the exchange has estimated total production of 12.8 million tons.
 
The Secretariat last month raised its estimate for 2003-04 corn output 12.4 million tons, up from 12.1 million tons previously.
 
The USDA has forecast output of 12.5 million tons. 
 
Meanwhile, farmers had also collected 83% of the 2003-04 sunseed crop, the Secretariat said.
 
This puts the pace of collection up from 68% last week but down from 79% a year ago at this time.
 
Planted area stands at 1.908 million hectares, compared with 2.37 million a year ago.
 
As of Friday, farmers had collected 1,586,050 hectares.
 
The Secretariat has estimated production will total 3.4 million tons in 2003-04.
 
The exchange has put production at 3.47 million tons.
 
Planted area totals 1.95 million hectares, though only 1.938 hectares will actually be harvested, the exchange said, citing crop damage.
 
The average yield so far this year is 1.92 tons/hectare, compared with 1.7 tons a year ago, the exchange reported.