BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) — The past week of rain in Argentina continued to largely benefit soy and corn crops in the 2013-14 season but also created poor growing conditions in some areas, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.
The Argentine farm belt has enjoyed abundant showers in February after weeks of dry, hot weather in January and December that threatened soy and corn crops planted later in the season.
Fears that the drought would affect production spurred a rise in the crops’ prices on commodity markets.
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Argentina is the world’s third-biggest soy and corn exporter.
“Ongoing rains continue improving the general state of soy crops,” the agriculture ministry said in its weekly crop report.
The government said 85 percent of early-planted soy crops are in a good or very good state compared with 83 percent last week. It held its view that 73 percent of soy crops planted later in the season are in the same favorable state.
But the agriculture ministry said excessive rain could hurt crops in some areas.
The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange and a climate expert said earlier this week that excessive moisture could help plant diseases and plagues spread, threatening soy yields.
The government said rains would likely continue in the South American country’s main agricultural region through Saturday.
On Thursday, Argentina trimmed its view of the total area planted with soy in the 2013-14 season to 50.2 million acres from 51.4 million acres because of the drought in previous weeks.
Corn harvesting has already started on some of the 14 million acres the government estimates will be planted with the grain this season.
Corn has still not been planted on some farms in the province of Santiago del Estero.
Rains likely fell too late to rescue many of the earliest-planted corn crops from the earlier sweltering weather, the government said on Thursday.
The agriculture ministry has not yet published production estimates for soy or corn in the 2013-14 season. The Buenos Aires Grains exchange has put soy output at 53 million tonnes and corn production at 23.5 million tonnes.
