Argentina appears to have gone from one extreme to the next, which is so often the case in agriculture. Let’s just forget about their local politics for a moment, as hard as that is to do, and have a look at their weather over the last week or two.
World Ag Weather.com shows that much of the major wheat and corn producing states have seen between 50 – 150mm of rain. The heaviest falls in the north. Argentina generally harvest their wheat crop about a month later than here in NNSW. That would put them pretty much in the middle of wheat harvest at present. The dry weather during the winter had seen some regions mature a lot quicker than usual so it’s probably safe to assume harvest had progressed a little quicker than usual in places.
Much of the recent rain came from a severe storm over the weekend which dumped 60-90mm. The rain, as welcome as it was, has disrupted sowing of summer crops and the harvest of wheat. In the south some reports state as much as 80% of the wheat was left to harvest when the rains started. The storm produced winds of up to 150kmph according to a Reuters news article. Possibly laying flat any standing crops in it’s path.
Storms are expected to continue across parts of Cordoba and Santa Fe and parts of the southern Pampas regions over the weekend.
Still in S.America there are now some private estimates of the Brazilian soybean crop coming in closer to 140mt than the recently quoted 150mt. Dry weather across Mato Grosso, the major soybean state, is expected to strip up to 10mt of soybean production from the state. Dry weather to the east of MT is also becoming an issue.
Egypt picked up 480kt of Russian wheat on Tuesday. Egypt, like Saudi Arabia, are taking advantage of the lower world prices at present. Russia continues to be the major winner as N.African states buy up for Jan / Feb. Values were similar to last weeks S.Arabian sale prices, @ US$287.40 C&F.