Most of Argentina’s top farmland will likely suffer a lack of rain over the next week along with lower temperatures, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in a report released on Wednesday.
In its weekly crop weather report, the exchange forecast for scarce to no rainfall, or less than 10 millimeters (0.4 inch), over the next seven days for the country’s core agricultural areas.
Argentina is a top global grains producer and exporter, including for soybeans, corn and wheat, sales of which are a key source of U.S. dollars for central bank coffers, used to pay down debt and finance imports.
Cold weather is also expected over the same period, which could benefit corn growers battling a major insect infestation.
“A mass of polar air will arrive, producing a marked thermal decrease in most of the agricultural area, with a risk of general frost in the western mountain areas, and localized frost throughout the west, center and south,” according to the report.
Argentina’s current 2023/2024 corn crop has been hit hard by a severe outbreak of leafhopper insects, a tiny yellow bug that thrives in hotter temperatures while wreaking havoc on plantings. The expected cold snap could check the insect’s spread. Earlier this month, officials estimated losses to the country’s corn harvest so far at more than $2 billion due to the leafhopper outbreak.