Argentine soy planting progressed enough over the last week to catch up with the previous season's pace as floodwaters receded, Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Thursday.
Consumer nations are counting on Argentina and neighboring Brazil to help bring soaring world food prices down to earth by producing ample soy, corn and wheat crops following poor harvests in fellow breadbaskets Russia and the United States.
In its weekly crop report, the grains exchange kept its soy area estimate steady at 19.7 million hectares. It said that while heavy rains have made some parts of the Pampas grains belt unplantable, the moist conditions allowed for wider-than-expected seedings elsewhere.
Growers had sown 84.9 percent of the estimated soy area as of Thursday, the report said, progressing 4.8 percentage points during the week and pulling even with last season's tempo.
The storms that turned wide swathes of prime farmland into unplantable mush early this season have given way to a blazing Southern Hemisphere summer sun.
"Conditions are generally very good in the core agricultural belt, where early-planted soy plants have sprouted seedlings," the report said. "The more advanced areas are in pod-forming stage with good leaf development."
Eduardo Sierra, climate adviser to the exchange, explained that the epicenter of the rains started moving northward as summer weather set in late last month.
"So the precipitation has eased in the core farm area, providing a quieter environment that is more favorable for agriculture," Sierra said.
The exchange has not yet forecast 2012/13 soybean output, but government officials have said they expect a record crop of 55 million tonnes or more, depending on the weather. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) also sees 55 million tonnes.
Argentina is the world's No. 3 soybean exporter and its top supplier of soyoil and soymeal.
SUPPLY TENSIONS
Benchmark Chicago grains futures were squeezed higher last year as growing world demand was met by thin supplies.
The United Nations has warned that continued supply tensions could cause more price volatility in 2013, putting basic staples out of reach for poor consumers and increasing inflation in developed economies struggling with sluggish growth.
The exchange said 82 percent of the 3.4 million hectares expected to be planted with commercial-use corn in Argentina this season have been seeded so far. Corn sowing advanced 7.3 percentage points, lagging last season's tempo by 1.5 points.
"We expect the weather to improve over the days ahead in areas affected by excessive moisture -- principally central-western Buenos Aires province and parts of southeastern Cordoba -- allowing a large portion of the land planned for corn to be seeded," the exchange said.
The USDA sees Argentina producing a record 27.5 million tonnes of 2012/13 corn and 11.5 million tonnes of wheat. Growers have collected 79 percent of the area seeded with 2012/13 wheat, the report said. Harvesting advanced 11.7 points during the week, lagging the previous season's rate by 13.7 points due to flood-related logistical problems.
Fungal diseases have attacked watery wheat fields, cutting average yields in the southern part of the grains belt to 2.8 tonnes per hectare, 22.8 percent below
average yields over the last 10 years, the report said.
The Argentine government expects wheat output of 10.5 million tonnes, lower than initially estimated.
