BAGE slashes Arg. soybean production 5.5% to 51m mt

The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange (BAGE) has cut its soybean production estimate for Argentina by 3 million mt to 51 million mt due to adverse weather conditions.

In a report released Thursday, BAGE said that soybean planting had been completed on 18 million hectares of land, down 6.3% versus the previous year, but that the crop condition was poor and the short-term weather forecast would not relieve crop stress.

“The short-term weather forecast does not provide relief in areas effected by water stress and that is why our projection is reduced to 51 million mt, a fall of 5.5% compared to the end of September 2017 (54 million mt),” BAGE said.

The weekly report said 34.6% of the crop was regular to bad and 53% of the crop had a water condition of regular to drought.

The revised forecast brings BAGE into line with more of the bearish forecasts seen in the market, such as Michael Cordonnier’s forecast of a 51 million mt crop and Rabobank’s projection of 51.5 million mt.

In terms of corn, at 96.7% of the crop was in the ground on an expected 5.4 million hectares of land and BAGE kept its planted area forecast steady, despite some planting to be completed in the northeast and northwest of the country.