Argentina’s production of soyabeans and corn is expected to increase sharply in the 2023/24 marketing year, according to latest forecasts from the Buenos Aires-based Rosario Grain Exchange (BCR) reported by World Grain.
With recent rainfall providing relief from the country’s worst drought in almost 60 years, the grain exchange forecast soyabean production to reach 48M tonnes, up from 20M tonnes in 2022/23, the 10 August report said.
Corn output was projected at 56M tonnes, up from 34M tonnes the previous year.
Argentina – the world’s leading soyabean meal exporter – was expected to increase its soyabean planted area by 6% to 17M ha, according to the BCR.
In early August, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) made a similarly optimistic forecast for wheat production in the South American country, projecting Argentina’s wheat crop in 2023/24 to increase by 41% to 17M tonnes, up from 12M tonnes the previous year. Exports were expected to almost triple from 4.6M tonnes last year to 12M tonnes this year.
A larger wheat crop in Argentina would be a welcome development as several other leading wheat producers, such as Australia, were expecting smaller crops in 2023/24 and Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative was likely to lead to a reduction in Ukrainian wheat shipments, World Grain wrote.
