August 27, 2007

Mexico Sinaloa 2006/07 autumn-winter corn crop seen ending up 16 percent

Mexico's 2006/07 fall-winter harvest of mostly white corn in the key grains state of northern Sinaloa is on track to end up 16 percent at 4,758,967 tonnes, the Sinaloa Agriculture Ministry said Friday (Aug 24).

This compares to total output in the last 2005/06 autumn-winter crop of 4,115,458 tonnes, the ministry said in its latest report based on harvest progress through Jul 31. Dow Jones Newswires obtained a copy of the report.

A total of 493,177 hectares of corn, of which 90 percent is made up of white corn used in making of the key Mexican staple tortillas, were planted, also up 16 percent on the year compared with 426,064 hectares planted in the 2005/06 cycle.

The new figures are in line with data released by the Agriculture Ministry's statistical arm, SIAP, earlier this year, which showed preliminary sowing projections for the new crop to be up 15 percent.

As of Jul 31, almost the entire planted area had been harvested and the 2006/07 autumn-winter harvest was expected to be completed by the third week in August, an official at the ministry's office in Sinaloa said.

Average yields in the harvest stood at 9.684 tonnes/hectare of cultivated area by Jul 31, the report said.

The figure, however, is still lower than forecasts by private trade, which has said as much as 530,000 hectares were planted, including 50,000 hectares of yellow corn, and a record 5.0 million tonnes of corn is expected by the end of the harvest.

Neither the Agriculture Ministry nor SIAP has provided any breakdown on the production share between white and yellow corn, but agriculture and industry officials have said that farmers are working towards increasing the yellow corn share to 10 percent of the total output from Sinaloa.

Mexico's 2006/07 grains crop cycle is made up of the autumn-winter crop - which was planted between October and December last year and harvested in May and June - and the spring-summer crop, which is planted between December and February and normally harvested in between August and October.