Rains boosted Argentina's soya crops

A second week of rains boosted soya crops in Argentina's top growing region and should help late-planted corn to recover from weeks of dryness, the government said on Monday. Argentina is the world's No 3 exporter of soyabeans and the top supplier of soyaoil and soyameal, but weeks of severe dryness prompted analysts to lower their forecasts for the country's 2010/11 harvest earlier this month.
A government official recently said the country's 2010/11 soya output will likely be less than 50 million tonnes, below a previous forecast for 52 million tonnes. "Soya plots in Tres Arroyos are in very good or good condition," the Agriculture Ministry said in its weekly crop report, referring to a district in Buenos Aires, the top soya growing region.
However, many soya fields in Cordoba, the No 2 soya region, still need rain to catch up with the normal growing pattern. By Thursday, farmers had planted 98 percent of an estimated soya area of 18.7 million hectares (46.2 million acres), up 2 percentage points from the previous week but lagging last season's pace by 1 point.
Forecasts for more rain in February should further revitalise soya crops after prolonged dryness in late December and early January, a local meteorologist said on Monday. Argentina produced a record of up to 55 million tonnes of soyabeans last year due to favourable crop weather that boosted yields, but weeks of dryness damaged some crops while causing irreparable damage to corn yields.
The US Department of Agriculture, or USDA, cut its estimate for 2010/11 Argentine soya output earlier this month to 50.5 million tonnes from 52 million tonnes previously. Regarding corn, the ministry said the rainfall arrived too late for early-planted crops, but it is likely to lift the development of later-planted corn.
Argentina is the second-largest exporter of corn after the United States, but early-planted fields did not get enough water when plants were going through the key pollination stage. Farmers had seeded 97 percent of the 4.1 million hectares estimated for corn planting by Thursday, advancing 2 percentage points from last week but 1 point behind last season's tempo.
The USDA also lowered its forecast for Argentina's corn crop to 23.5 million tonnes from 25 million tonnes previously. The report said that Argentine farmers have finished harvesting wheat and collected around 14 million tonnes, below the figure given last week by the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange, which put this season's output at 15 million tonnes.