Argentina's 2019/20 soya crop is expected at 49.5 million tonnes, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in its weekly report on Thursday, citing bad weather and lower-than-expected yields as the reason for cutting its earlier 52 million tonnes forecast.
The lowered estimate hits farmers just as transportation problems stemming from the coronavirus pandemic cause logistics bottlenecks that have hurt exports. Some 28 ships have been delayed as they tried to enter Parana River export hubs, according to local maritime agency NABSA.
Port administrators say day-long health inspections have bogged down river traffic while some truckers' unions and municipal governments object to using the roads to transport commodities in Argentina on the grounds that it could help spread the virus while the rest of the country is on lockdown.
The lower-than-expected soya yields stem from the extreme dryness that blighted the Pampas farm belt in February and early March. Since then, growers have had to contend with unusually rainy conditions that have made some roads impassable and soils too wet to allow heavy harvesting combines to enter fields.
"Interrupted by rains in large sectors of the agricultural belt, the soyabean harvest advanced 3.5 percentage points over the last seven days to 8.1% of planted area," the exchange said in the report.
"Only the center-east of the agricultural region maintained good weather conditions, concentrating the greatest progress in core northern areas, where harvesting covered just over 30% of planted areas," according to the report.
The exchange maintained its 50-million-tonne corn harvest forecast unchanged. Some 22.2% of the 2019/20 corn crop has been harvested so far, the report said. Argentina is the world's No. 3 corn and soyabean exporter, as well as its top supplier of soyameal livestock feed.
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