BUENOS AIRES, Brazil (Reuters) – Heavy rain throughout Argentina in mid-September boosted the outlook for the 2009-10 wheat crop, although frosts could still hurt production.
Argentina is one of the world’s main suppliers of wheat, but a severe drought has recently led the country to cut its outlook for the 2009-10 wheat area to seven million acres, well below 11 million acres in 2008-09 and almost half the five-year average of 13 million acres.
After heavy rain hit three of the country’s four main wheat-producing regions, “it may be possible to expect that the average national output could be 28 percent higher than in the previous cycle,” the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in its weekly report.
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Still, “forecasts for intense frost in coming days may hurt the crop,” the report added.
Argentina’s government has not published a wheat forecast, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its outlook for 2009-10 production to eight million tonnes from a previous forecast of 8.5 million tonnes in August.
Corn planting for 2009-10 has stepped up in some of the country’s main producing provinces due to last week’s increase in rainfall, the exchange said.
Argentina has fallen to No. 3 world exporter of corn from No. 2, due to drought damage to the 2008-09 harvest, when six million acres were planted and output was only 12.5 million tonnes.
Farmers have planted 14.5 percent of the projected corn area, the report said, up 5.8 percent from a week earlier and 7.7 percent more advanced than the same period last year.
The USDA cut its estimate for 2009-10 corn to 14 million tonnes from its previous outlook of 15 million.
The government has not made an official calculation for this year’s corn area.
The grain exchange cut its forecast for sunseed planting to 5.07 million acres in 2009-10, down from 5.19 million acres in its previous outlook.
As of Sept. 23, farmers had planted 9.3 percent of the forecast sunseed area, up 0.7 of a percentage point from a week earlier.
