Arg. corn estimate kept at 46m mt as harvest begins: BAGE

Argentina’s corn production for the 2020/21 marketing year is set to hit 46 million mt, 5.5 million mt below the previous year owing to dry weather at the start of the planting campaign, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange (BAGE) said in its weekly update Thursday.

This news follows a report from rival exchange at the Rosario Board of Trade released late Wednesday, that increased its production estimate from 46 million mt to 48.5 million mt owing to ample rainfall in January.

But for BAGE, the rains have merely served to maintain the current state of the crop rather than improve it.

The harvest has got underway however, with 0.2% of the progress complete as of last week.

For soybeans, the new rainfall in January and into February has improved the condition of the crop in most planted areas, with the exception of the extreme north and south of the planted area.

Approximately 96.5% of the whole planted crop shows adequate-to-optimal signs of soil moisture with more than 33% of the crop now entering a critical growing stage, the report added.