Argentine wheat sales drop on lower crop

Argentine farmer sales of the 2022-23 wheat crop dropped 44% in the week ending on October 26, while 2021-22 soybean sales nearly doubled compared with the previous week, data from the country’s Agriculture Secretariat showed Wednesday, November 2.

Wheat sales

Farmer sales of the 2022-23 wheat crop dropped 44% on the week to 41,000 tonnes, while sales of the 2021-22 crop rose by 27% on the week to land at 119,000 tonnes.

Cumulative sales for the 2022-23 crop total 5.46 million tonnes, down 41% from last year, while sales of the 2021-22 crop reached 22.56 million tonnes, a 33% yearly increase.

Export license applications for the 2022-23 crop remained unchanged at 8.85 million tonnes, compared with 9.07 million tonnes at the same time last year.

The government has announced an extension to the export licenses granted for volumes due to be exported between December and the end of February as it seeks to alleviate a tighter supply situation due to a lower-than-expected wheat crop this season.

The Rosario Grain Exchange (BCR) expects the wheat crop to come at 13.7 million tonnes in 2022-23, a drop of 40% from the record-high crop from last season amid ongoing poor weather conditions.

Export applications for the 2021-22 crop remained unchanged at 14.55 million tonnes, up 39% from the same point last year.

Soybean sales

Soybean farmer sales for the 2021-22 crop rose 96% from the prior week to 323,000 tonnes in the week covered by the report, bringing cumulative sales for the crop to 31.28 million tonnes, down 6% from a year earlier.

Sales of the 2022-23 crop rose 42% on the week to 74,000 tonnes, bringing cumulative sales to 1.69 million tonnes, leaving the total 35% lower year-on-year.

Export license applications rose 60,000 tonnes, bringing the accumulated volume of licenses for the 2022-23 crop at 311,000, while there were none a year earlier.

Export licenses for the 2021-22 crop reached 5.61 tonnes, exceeding the 5.2 million tonnes applied for a year ago.

Corn sales

Farmer sales of the 2021-22 corn crop dropped 31% from the prior week to 643,000 tonnes in the week covered by the report, bringing cumulative sales for the crop to 41.59 million tonnes, down 5% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, new crop sales were reported at 322,000 tonnes, sharply up by 127% on the prior week.

There were no new corn export license applications, with old and new crop total licenses unchanged at 32.8 million and 8.9 million tonnes, respectively.

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