Argentina trims wheat area outlook

Argentina's government trimmed its forecast for 2011/12 wheat area to 4.5 million hectares from the 4.7 million hectares projected a month ago, the Agriculture Ministry said in a report on Thursday. The South American country is one of the world's top suppliers of the grain.
Wheat area this season is expected to be 2.9 percent bigger than in the 2010/11 crop year, when farmers produced 14.7 million tonnes of wheat. "In contrast to prior seasons, wheat planting has benefited from moist soils this time around," the government said.
The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange forecasts wheat area of 4.6 million hectares. Neither the grains exchange nor the government has estimated wheat output yet. In its weekly report, the grains exchange said farmers had seeded 99.8 percent of estimated wheat area, gaining 1.4 percentage points in the last week and outpacing last season's tempo by 2.3 points.
The exchange said the wheat crop is generally in good condition with adequate moisture, specifically mentioning central areas of Buenos Aires province, the country's largest wheat-growing district. Frosts could pose a problem over the next seven days, however, since temperatures are forecast to drop.
The US Department of Agriculture predicts that Argentina will produce 13.5 million tonnes of 2011/12 wheat. In its monthly report, the Argentine ministry raised its outlook for 2010/11 corn production to 21.9 million tonnes from the 21.7 million tonnes estimated previously.
Argentina is the world's No 2 corn exporter after the United States. Dry conditions linked to the La Nina weather phenomenon hurt yields, dashing hopes that this season's crop could top the record 22.7 million tonnes grown in 2009/10. The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said corn yields currently average 6.9 tonnes per hectare, down from a record 8.6 tonnes per hectare last season. By Thursday, farmers had gathered 98.3 percent of harvestable corn lands, advancing 1.1 percentage points from a week earlier but lagging last season's tempo by 1.7 points, the grains exchange reported.
The grains exchange forecasts 2010/11 corn output at 21 million tonnes while the USDA foresees an Argentine crop of 22 million tonnes. On Thursday, the Agriculture Ministry held its forecast for 2010/11 soya output at 48.8 million tonnes, just slightly below the USDA's outlook of 49 million tonnes. Argentina is the world's top soyaoil and soyameal exporter and its No 3 soyabean supplier.