BUENOS AIRES, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Dry conditions forecasted for Argentina in the coming days are expected to help soy and corn crops after heavy rains in late December and early January left 10 percent of its central farm belt with excessive moisture, local weather experts said on Tuesday.
The recent wet weather caused concern about soy planting in the world’s No. 1 exporter of soymeal livestock feed.
“We expect to see dry conditions until Sunday or Monday, when we expect the rain to come back,” German Heinzenknecht, meteorologist for consultancy Applied Climatology, said in a telephone interview.
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He stressed that while the dry weather will come as a relief to flooded areas of southern Cordoba, northwest Buenos Aires and southwestern Santa Fe provinces, parts of these regions need up to two weeks of sun to fully recuperate.
Almost all the 47.7 million acres that the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange forecasts for soy planting this year have been seeded.
Eduardo Sierra, climate advisor to the exchange, said the rains that are expected to start next week will be of lesser intensity and were likely to cause less flood damage than the early January storms.
“We expect two weather fronts more,” he said, “one on Jan. 16 and another on the 21st.”
Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures firmed on Tuesday, recovering from weakness in overnight trading on technical buying amid lingering concerns about weather in key South American growing regions.
Traders said the weather in Brazil and Argentina remained the forefront concern for the market, particularly after crop shortfalls from both major exporters last year.
