MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Another record wheat year is forecasted for Uruguay

Estimates are that 500.000 hectares will be planted with wheat

Uruguay could be heading for another record of farmland dedicated to wheat and although it is too early to have the exact data, estimates are above 500.000 hectares. Good climate and lower input costs, mainly from fertilizers, could be anticipating a record harvest next December overtaking the 480.000 hectares and 1.2 million tons of the 2008 crop, according to reports in the Montevideo press based on official and private estimates.

If this is the case Uruguay will have an even greater surplus to export in 2010. Equally interesting is that Argentina will be out of the market since the neighbouring country’s coming harvest is estimated to be half last year’s crop barely enough for domestic consumption with virtually no volume for exporting. The administration of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner farm policies can be singled out for what promises to be an excellent wheat year for Uruguay.

“If what has been happening for the last four years continues, with yields of 3.000 kilos per hectare, we could be harvesting 1.5 million tons, a historic crop”, said Roberto Symonds Uruguay’s Rural Association delegate to the country’s Wheat Board.

The good wheat crops are not attributed only to better international prices and lower costs. “Wheat runs behind soy, if land dedicated to soy keeps expanding so will the wheat farmland”, added Symonds.

Most soy beans in Uruguay are direct sowing which means with out labouring the soil and since wheat is a good rotating option for conservation and keeping the productive cycle, the complementation seems only natural.

“Most companies renting land are planting crop after crop, the year round, and wheat fits very well. In some cases the alternatives are barley or oats. But barley much depends from the breweries and oats is a minor crop”, said Symonds.

Regarding prices Symonds said that at the beginning of the year the starting floor for wheat was 130 US dollars per ton, “but now it stands at 272 USD, and futures are above 200 USD which means prospects are good”.

Finally Symonds admitted that neighbouring Argentina’s Kirchner administration farm policies have benefited Uruguay. The fact Argentina will be out of the global wheat trading as an exporter next year, means easier access to the Brazilian market plus stronger prices.