April 20, 2004

Argentina's 2003-04 Corn 42.3% Collected By Saturday
 
Farmers in Argentina had collected 42.3% of the 2003-04 corn harvest by Saturday, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange reported. By this time last year, farmers had collected 61.7% the harvest.
 
As with soybeans, the collection of corn has been delayed because of heavy rain and storm conditions through Argentina's main farming areas.
 
So far, farmers have produced 6,256,115 tons.
 
Collectable area stands at 2.2 million hectares and 931,271 hectares have been collected thus far.
 
The average yield last week was 6.73 tons/hectare, which is down from 7.15 tons a year ago at this time.
 
Based on the average yield thus far, the exchange has estimated total production of 12.8 million tons. This would be a decline of about 3 million tons from the previous year, according to exchange data.
 
The USDA has forecast 2003-04 corn production at 12.5 million tons and the Agriculture Secretariat sees output at 12.4 million tons.
 
Meanwhile, farmers had collected 91% of the 2003-04 sunseed crop by Saturday.
 
This puts the pace of collection inline with the previous year.
 
Planted area totals 1.95 million hectares, though only 1.93 million hectares will actually be harvested, the exchange said, citing crop damage.
 
The average yield so far this year is 1.8 tons/hectare, compared with 1.63 tons a year ago.
 
Production will total 3.47 million tons, the exchange said.
 
Last year output totaled 3.6 million tons, according to the exchange.
 
The USDA has estimated 2003-04 sunseed output at 3.2 million tons.