Rains bring relief to Arg. wheat crop, sunseed sowing continues: BAGE

Rainfall across the centre and southern areas in Argentina over the past week brought much-needed relief to the maturing wheat crop, while sunseed sowing continued apace, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange (BAGE) said in its weekly update.

The exchange estimated that 46% of the crop was in optimum moisture condition, an increase to last week’s 38%, but below last year’s level of 56%.

“The moisture condition of wheat in the central and southern areas of the agricultural area has begun to improve after the contribution of the rains registered in the last week,” BAGE said.

Yet the condition of the crop worsened on the week with 59% rated fair-to-excellent, compared to last week’s 62% and the 84% recorded at a similar time in 2019.

BAGE added that it expects the crop conditions to improve over the next few days following the recent rainfall, however, “irreversible losses are expected on the potential yield” after weeks of drought.

While the centre and the south of Argentine received rains, the north remained dry where the crop remains in drought stress.

Meanwhile, this year’s sunseed sowing continued, hitting 9.9% completion of the expected 1.5 million ha, a weekly progress of two percentage points, but some 19 points ahead on the year.

Most of the progress was made in the centre and south – where rains aided the sowing efforts – while progress was limited in the north.

BAGE warned that a further reduction to the expected planted area could occur if the drought in the north continues after its slashed its forecast last week.