Showers in Argentina's farming areas caused some delays in the country's 2010/11 soya harvest, the government said in its weekly report on Friday, although most of the crop has already been brought in. The South American country is the world's No 1 soyameal and soyaoil exporter, as well as its third-biggest soyabean supplier. The government expects the 2010/11 harvest to total 50.4 million tonnes.
"The rains delayed the end of the harvest of early-seeded soya in Lincoln (an area in the north-western part of Buenos Aires province), even though few fields remain to be gathered," the report said. Buenos Aires is the biggest soya-producing region in the country.
Argentina's 2010/11 crop was affected by a drought toward the end of 2010 but heavy rains helped restore moisture in January and February. By Thursday, producers had collected 88 percent of the 18.7 million hectares planted with soya this season. This marked an advance of 6 percentage points from a week earlier.
Progress in harvesting the crop is lagging that of the previous season by 2 percentage points, the government report said. The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange expects the soya crop to come in at 49.2 million tonnes, while the US Department of Agriculture predicts Argentine output of 49.5 million tonnes.