Stronger yields lift Argentina’s soybean harvest: BAGE

Better than expected yields in some areas, particularly in Buenos Aires state, lifted Argentina’s 2019/20 soybean harvest projection by a modest 100,000 mt to 49.6 million mt, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange said in its weekly report.

The previous estimate of 49.5 million mt has now already been collected, with just 0.6% of the harvest left to go, despite a slight drop in overall national yields to 2.95 mt/ha from 2.96 mt/ha last week.

“During the last section of the harvest, the yields collected in batches in different regions of Buenos Aires were above expectations, and this allows us to raise the projection at the end of the campaign,” the report said.

Elsewhere, wheat planting continued to pick up pace, with 41.7% of the new crop now sown on the projected area of 6.8 million ha, up 11.7 points on the week and 5.6 points ahead of the pace set last year.

While expected rainfall did arrive, some areas benefitted less and a drop in humidity could slow the planting pace down in the coming weeks, the report added.

And for corn, the harvest gained 5.4 points on the week with 61% of the area now collected.

Despite a slight drop in average yields to 8.78 mt/ha from 8.9 mt/ha in the previous week, the agency has maintained its production forecast at 50 million mt.

Finally, the nation’s sorghum harvest is now complete on 58.6% of the projected area, up 10 points in the past two weeks with the production forecast maintained at 2.5 million mt.