BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) — Expectations of big South American soybean and corn crops have been thrown into question by weather in Argentina.
Brazilian weather is still favour-able to a big crop, but in late December and early January storms pounded Argentina’s breadbasket province of Buenos Aires, delaying corn and soy planting.
The country is the world’s No. 3 exporter of corn and soybeans. It is also the world’s top supplier of soymeal livestock feed.
“It rained heavily over Christmas and then again over the weekend of Dec. 31. This washed out some fields and rural roads, which delayed some planting of summer crops (soy and corn),” said Natalia Gattinoni, an analyst with the government’s Institute of Climate and Water.
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Rain continued in several central and northern areas last week, but drier weather was in the forecast.
While recent excess rain raised worries about completion of the tail end of seeding and perhaps the need to reseed some fields, earlier in December the worry was about dry conditions in southern regions.
The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange last week lowered its soybean seeded area forecast to 47.7 million acres from a previous forecast of 48.4 million. It cited dry conditions in southeastern Buenos Aires province as the reason for the decline.
Last year it seeded 49.1 million acres to the oilseed.
“The planting window has closed in southeastern Buenos Aires. The prolonged drought in that area did not permit a considerable amount of seeding to take place,” the exchange said in its weekly crop report.
Even before the weather problems, farmers were cutting back on soy this year in favour of seeding more wheat and corn, which have benefited from new government policies encouraging export of those two grains.
While Argentina weather was capturing headlines, forecasts for Brazil’s crops are creeping higher and could offset the declines in its southern neighbour.
