Drought disrupts wheat planting in Argentina

By Artur Piva

Amid one of the most prolonged droughts in history, wheat planting fell in Argentina’s top-producing region.

A report from the Rosario Stock Exchange, the country’s main trading desk, shows that the sowing of the grain has reached only about 33% of the estimated area.

According to the document, with adequate rainfall, the area destined for wheat planting in the Argentine region should have reached around 2 million hectares – a record.

But, with the rain volume at 30% of the expected, sowing fell to 650,000 hectares.

The report also states that the area destined for wheat in the region this year, so far, is 50% less than in 2022.

The shortfall in planted area corresponds to the setback of eight years since the levels are as low as those of the 2015 planting.

Figuring as the largest supplier of wheat to Brazil in the foreign market, Argentina is expected to harvest 11.5 million tonnes in 2023.

According to estimates by the Rosario Stock Exchange, this quantity corresponds to a little less than half of the 2022 harvest.

The impact on the Brazilian market, however, may be mitigated by domestic production.

In Brazil, the forecast is for a wheat record harvest: 10.5 million tonnes.

If the result is confirmed, imports should have a cut of half a million tons over 2022.

With information from Revista Oeste