June 30, 2023
Argentina forecasts significant increase in wheat harvest for 2023/2024 season
Argentina's government has issued a forecast indicating that the wheat harvest for the 2023/2024 season is expected to reach 18 to 19 million metric tonnes, marking a substantial increase of nearly 50% compared to the drought-impacted previous harvest, XM News reported.
In the 2022/2023 crop, Argentina's wheat harvest only amounted to 12.6 million metric tonnes. As a leading agricultural powerhouse in South America, Argentina is renowned as the world's largest exporter of processed soybeans and a major supplier of corn and wheat. But the previous season's yields were significantly reduced due to an unprecedented drought.
Farmers in Argentina have recently begun sowing new wheat fields, with the main harvesting period set to take place between December and January.
According to the agriculture secretariat, the projected wheat planting area for the 2023/2024 season is estimated to be around 6.1 million hectares, aligning with the forecast by the Buenos Aires grains exchange.
However, the exchange has slightly adjusted its estimate for the planting area to 6.0 million hectares from the previous forecast of 6.1 million hectares.
Recent rainfall has helped alleviate the parched weather conditions in most regions, although certain areas have experienced a lack of rainfall in recent weeks. The grains exchange noted in its weekly report that the insufficient humidity in the central-west region, particularly in the southern part of Cordoba province and northern La Pampa province, is hindering farmers from executing their original planting plans.
In terms of other crops, the completed soybean crop for the 2022/2023 season yielded 21 million metric tonnes, as reported by the grains exchange, which is less than half of the 43.3 million metric tonnes harvested in the previous cycle.
As for corn, the exchange stated that 48.5% of the 2022/2023 harvest has been collected, with the total grain production estimated at 34 million metric tonnes.
- XM News
