Argentina’s wheat harvest for the /2024 season is estimated at 18-19 million metric tons, according to a government forecast issued on Thursday, up by about half compared to the previous drought-stricken harvest.
The wheat harvest during the previous /2023 crop totaled just 12.6 million metric tons.
Argentine farmers began sowing new wheat fields in recent weeks, which will be harvested mainly between December and January.
Argentina’s agriculture secretariat estimates that the /2024 wheat planting area will total some 6.1 million hectares, in line with the area forecast by the Buenos Aires grains exchange.
On Thursday, the exchange slightly cut its estimate for the wheat planting area to 6.0 million hectares from 6.1 million hectares previously forecast.
The South American agricultural powerhouse is the world’s largest exporter of processed soybeans as well as a major corn and wheat supplier, but last season’s yields were sharply trimmed by a historic drought.
Recent rains helped to reverse the parched weather conditions in most areas, but others have suffered from a lack of rainfall in recent weeks.
In its weekly report, the grains exchange said that the lack of humidity over the center-west of Argentina’s key agricultural region, especially in the south of Cordoba province and north of La Pampa province, does not allow farmers to meet their original planting plans.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Editing by David Alire Garcia)
