BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Recent rains in Argentina’s agricultural region have allowed soil moisture to recover and 72.1% of the planned wheat harvest has now been planted under good and optimal conditions, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said on Thursday.
This marks a dramatic turnaround from last season, when the worst drought on record hit Argentina’s agricultural heartland and halved the cycle’s wheat harvest to just 12.4 million metric tons, according to the exchange.
The exchange in its weekly report said that 28% of the fields at the national level have begun the “tillering stage,” when secondary shoots called tillers are produced.
It added that 96.4% of the 6 million hectares estimated for the 2023/24 cycle have already been planted.
Farmers meanwhile have harvested 68.4% of the area planted for Argentina’s 2022/23 cycle’s corn crop.
This should yield an estimated 34 million metric tons, the exchange said.
Argentina is a major global supplier of wheat and the third-largest international exporter of corn.
(Reporting by Walter Bianchi; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Mark Porter)
