Argy Wheat Plantings Continue To Lag

Argentine wheat plantings continue to lag, with less than 2 million hectares planted so far, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange have yet again cut their 2009 planted area estimate to 2.75 million hectares.

That still leaves farmers in Argentina needing to plant more than three quarters of a million hectares in the last fortnight of July. An unlikely scenario considering that they have only seeded 1.96 million hectares in the preceding 11 weeks of the normal planting window, an average of less than 200,000 ha/week.

"Planting is paralyzed and in many areas the planting window has closed or is very close to," the Exchange said.

Yields only mustered 2 MT/hectare in 2008, and soil conditions have worsened since then. Even if they do manage to plant 2.75 million hectares then that only gives us a crop of 5.5 MMT if they manage to match last season's yields.

The USDA, inexplicably, have production in the coming season at 9.5 MMT.