Key Argentina soya area still coping with late 2016 floods

Soy grower Carlos Zucarelli looks over his farm in Argentina's bread-basket province of Buenos Aires, watching ducks float around on a shallow lake covering much of what was meant to be this year's crop area. His and other farms in the area of Pergamino in northern Buenos Aires are still suffering from the effects of heavy December and January rains that flooded about 20 percent of their fields. Of Zucarelli's 70 hectares, 40 percent is underwater.
"It's irrecoverable because there's no time left to replant soya. It's still going to take time for this part of the farm to dry out," he said, the ducks quacking in the background.
Elsewhere in Buenos Aires province and the southern part of the neighbouring province of Santa Fe, flood-related losses are estimated by the Rosario grains exchange at 660,000 hectares. The exchange sees Argentina's soya harvest at 52.9 million tonnes, under the 55.3 million tonnes produces in 2015-16.