Market News & Headlines >> Argentina's Soy Harvest Moving Along

Argentina’s soybean harvest continues to lag after a slow start due to heavy April rains that hit about half of the production belt, but producers have been catching up and should continue to make good progress over the next couple of weeks. 

The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange, Argentina’s oldest futures exchange, estimated soybean harvest at 72.5% complete as of May 26, up from up from 61.5% a week earlier, but down from 90.7% a year earlier. 

Forecasters are calling for continued favorable harvest weather. Favorable conditions for crop maturation and harvesting and conditions for planting of winter crops will continue through much of the next two weeks, according to private U.S. forecaster World Weather Inc.  Dry conditions will occur most often with two rounds of light to moderate rain expected this week in parts of southern Argentina, World Weather said Tuesday morning. Brief interruptions to fieldwork should result.

"It will be mostly sunny in the main farm belt in June, which will be good for harvesting," said Anthony Deane, head of the Weather Wise Argentina consultancy told Reuters News Service on Tuesday. 

The favorable weather is too late for areas hardest hit by the April rains. "It's too late for the southern parts of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Cordoba provinces. The soybeans that can still be gotten out of those areas will be of poor quality," Deane said. 

The Buenos Aires Exchange has cut its 2016 crop forecast to 56.0 million metric tons from a previous estimate of 60.0 million tons. However, the exchange noted in its weekly crop report that higher-than-expected yields in southern Argentina were partially offsetting losses due to flooding.  Argentina’s Rosario grains exchange has pegged the crop at 55.0 million tons.