Dry and hot weather throughout the season in northern Argentina may lead the Buenos Aires grains exchange to reduce its estimate for the country’s 2023/24 soybean crop, currently sitting at 51 million metric tons, the exchange said on Thursday. The South American country is one of the world’s largest exporters of soy oil and soymeal.
In Argentina’s northern provinces, initial harvesting showed “below-average” yields, the exchange said.
“If this trend continues, our crop projection could be affected,” the exchange – which has already cut its estimate once this season on the weather – said.
The soybean harvest has been extremely delayed after constant, heavy rains in previous weeks left fields muddy. The harvest is 22.5% complete, 22.8 percentage points below the five-year average at this point in the season.
The 2023/24 corn harvest will also be affected by the heat, as well as the proliferation of the leafhopper insect, which has spread disease and already caused serious damage to the crop. The exchange said that despite the setbacks, it was maintaining its corn harvest estimate for the moment at 49.5 million tons.