Argentine Soybean Crop Getting Smaller
As Argentine farmers get stuck into the soybean harvest early reports are filtering through of disappointing yields. Having gotten off to a very poor start with severe early season drought, heavy February rains appeared to have arrived just in time to save soybeans.
March though has returned to hot & dry weather, with very little significant rainfall during the month. This seems to have led to early ripening of soybeans still at the pod-filling stage, resulting in lower yields than had been hoped for.
The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange cut it's estimate for soybean production by 1.3mmt to 41.2mmt on Friday, saying that just over 14% of the crop had been harvested to date.
And things could actually get much worse than that. Dow Jones are carrying a story reporting that one analyst is calling the crop at just 36-38mmt, adding that "losses may be even greater".
March though has returned to hot & dry weather, with very little significant rainfall during the month. This seems to have led to early ripening of soybeans still at the pod-filling stage, resulting in lower yields than had been hoped for.
The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange cut it's estimate for soybean production by 1.3mmt to 41.2mmt on Friday, saying that just over 14% of the crop had been harvested to date.
And things could actually get much worse than that. Dow Jones are carrying a story reporting that one analyst is calling the crop at just 36-38mmt, adding that "losses may be even greater".