Strong rains threaten 8.0 percent of Argentine wheat area: exchange

Fierce storms in Argentina's Pampas farm belt have inundated 300,000 hectares of recently-planted wheat, or 8.0 percent of the area estimated to have been planted with the grain this year, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Thursday. The South American grains powerhouse is a major supplier of wheat, particularly to neighboring Brazil.
"There is a high risk that fields that have been flooded will not recuperate rapidly. Losses in areas planted with wheat could be significant," the exchange said in its weekly crop report, which referred to key wheat areas in southern Santa Fe and northeast Buenos Aires provinces. "The situation in the region is critical," it said. Argentine farmers have sown 3.7 million hectares with wheat this season, well under the 4.4 million hectares planted in 2014/15, according to the exchange. It warned that unstable weather was likely to continue over the weeks ahead. The Southern Hemisphere spring, which starts in late September, is usually the wettest time of the year in Argentina.