LONDON: Most of Argentina’s farming areas will have little to no rainfall over the next seven days, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange (BdeC) said on Thursday, which will help speed up the harvest of the 2021/22 soybean crop that has a production estimate of 42 million tonnes. Argentina is the world’s leading exporter of soybean oil and meal, and the South American country’s producers are currently in the process of harvesting the oilseed.

“Most of the Argentine farming areas, a large part of the Paraguayan farming area and the Uruguayan farming area will see little to no rainfall (less than 10 millimeters), with pockets of moderate rainfall,” the BdeC said in its weekly weather report.

Dry conditions favor the work of combine harvesters in fields where the cereal is to be harvested.

BdeC will publish its weekly crop report at 15.00 local time (1800 GMT) on Thursday, with updates on the level of progress of the harvest, which as of last week was 46% of the 16.3 million hectares planted with soybeans.