Dryness throughout Argentina’s farm belt affected the development of wheat crops, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in its weekly report on Thursday, but the damage was not enough for it to cut its 19 million tonne harvest estimate.
The South American grains powerhouse is a major international wheat supplier, primarily to neighboring Brazil.
Lack of rain is starting to alarm growers amid forecasts that the La Nina climate phenomenon will further reduce precipitation over the next few months.
“The lack of rain aggravates the water deficit situation and causes a decrease in crop growth and delays in plant development, delaying the transition to reproductive stages of later sown fields,” the exchange said.
It said light showers were expected at the end of next week but not enough to make a difference to most parched wheat areas.
The exchange said harvesting of 2020/21 corn had been completed over the preceding seven days with an estimated total crop of 50.5 million tonnes. It said 6.6 million hectares had been planted with corn in the 2020/21 crop year compared with an expected 7.1 million hectares in the upcoming 2021/22 season.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Maximilian Heath, writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Mark Porter)