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Adds details on soy, corn
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 14 (Reuters) – A major Argentine grains exchange cut its wheat production forecast for the 2022/23 season by about 3% on Wednesday, after the crops suffered in drought and late-season frosts during the start of the southern hemisphere spring.
The Rosario Grains Exchange sees the wheat harvest at around 11.5 million tonnes, down from a previous estimate of 11.8 million tonnes.
Argentina is a top global wheat supplier, primarily shipping to Brazil and Indonesia, and a leading exporter of soybean oil and meal and corn.
The new wheat production forecast is far below the 19 million tonnes estimated in May.
Drought and low temperatures have hit Argentina’s wheat harvests amid a worldwide supply crunch worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
“Wheat in the central region has suffered a devastating season, between the constant lack of water … and the frosts,” said the exchange, adding that average wheat yields hit the lowest in a dozen years.
Argentine producers have harvested 62% of the 5.9 million hectares planted with wheat, according to the exchange, but some 900,000 hectares have been written off because of drought.
The exchange also maintained its 2022/23 season soy production forecast at 48 million tonnes and corn production at 56 million tonnes.
The planting area for soy will likely be smaller than the 17.1 million hectares estimated, however, also due to dry conditions.
Soy planting “continues to be threatened by the lack of water and very high temperatures that have been ongoing since November,” said the exchange. It cited delays that have led to just 49% of the crop planted, compared with 65% at the same point last season.
Corn planting has also suffered delays, standing at 47% progress versus 66% last season.
(Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Writing by Carolina Pulice and Kylie Madry; Editing by Sarah Morland and Grant McCool)
((Carolina.Pulice@thomsonreuters.com;))
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