BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) — Argentina expects a record soy crop of 54 million tonnes to be collected in the 2013-14 season, the agriculture ministry said in its monthly crop report on Thursday, forecasting an increase of 9.5 percent over the 2012-13 harvest.
It was the government’s first forecast of the current crop year. Harvesting of 2013-14 soy has begun on the Pampas grains belt, with the bulk of the crop expected to come in next month.
The Pampas suffered from a long stretch of dry weather early in the season until storms starting hitting soybean farms about two months ago.
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“It appears that good recovery from the earlier dryness has taken place thanks to the rains that fell in February and March,” the ministry said in its monthly crop report.
Argentina’s biggest-ever soy crop was 52.7 million tonnes in the 2009-10 season, according to the government. The South American country is the world’s No. Soybean and corn exporter.
The ministry said it expects this season’s corn crop at 29.8 million tonnes, down 7.2 percent from the 2012-13 crop year. Also on Thursday the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange increased its estimate for Argentina’s 2013-14 corn crop to 24 million tonnes from 23.5 million, citing the improving weather.
