Corn harvesting in Argentina advanced by 3.4 percentage points over the last week to reach 56% of planted area, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in a report on Thursday, keeping its crop estimate unchanged at 48 million tonnes for the 2020/21 season.
Progress in harvesting was slowed by wet weather. “High levels of moistness have interrupted the flow of harvesting in some areas, but as harvesters advance in later-planted areas, yields remain higher than initial expectations,” it said.
Argentina is the world’s No. 3 corn exporter and No. 1 supplier of soymeal livestock feed used to fatten hogs and poultry from Europe to Southeast Asia. It is also a major wheat supplier, mostly to neighboring Brazil.
Harvesting of Argentina’s 2020/21 soy concluded last month and sowing of the 2021/22 wheat crop in Argentina advanced 7.2 percentage points over the last week to cover more than 91% of expected planting area, the exchange said in the report.
“Due to the absence of rains in central and northern parts of the farm belt, wheat planting is advancing 4.5 percentage points faster than last season’s pace,” the exchange said.
(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by David Gregorio)
