Dry weather to prevail over main Argentina farmland over next week -grains exchange

Argentina’s main agricultural land will likely experience dry weather over the next seven days, according to a forecast from the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange (BdeC) released on Wednesday, in a boost to farmers facing excessive humidity due to recent rains.

Heavy rainfall in recent days came on top of heavy precipitation last month over the South American country’s most productive farmland, which left behind soaked soils that had impeded the ability of combine harvesters to enter many areas, which could crimp expected yields.

Argentina is a top global supplier of processed soybeans and other grains, including corn and wheat, with export income representing a major source of hard currency for the cash-strapped government.

“Most of the Southern Cone’s agricultural area will see scarce to no precipitation (less than 10 millimeters)” from Wednesday through next Tuesday, according to the exchange’s weekly farm weather report.

BdeC added that following recent rains, polar air will continue to cause a cooling effect on most of the agricultural area.

Last week, the exchange cut its soybean crop estimate for the current 2023/24 harvesting season to 51 million metric tons, or down about 3% from its previous estimate, due largely to a heat wave that hit planted areas in January and February.