MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Drought in Argentina and Paraguay threatens soy crops

South America's 2008/09 soy harvest is forecasted to drop from previous estimates because of drought in Argentina and Paraguay according to reports in the Oil World magazine.

The Argentine crop is estimated to fall between half a million and a million tons from the 49.5 to 50 million tons which were expected earlier in the year. "The drought has taken alarming proportions in some clue areas for soybeans" points out the Hamburg based magazine. "We believe that the area planted with soybeans is less than forecasted, plus the lack of rainfall and discouraging evolution of the crop will have an overall impact on Argentina's coming crop". Argentina's 2007/08 harvest totalled 47 million tons and Paraguay's crop is estimated to drop to between 5.4 and 5,8 million tons, the lowest volume in the last three years, compared to the 6.8 million of the previous harvest. But the drought so far concentrated in Argentina and Paraguay seems to be moving northwards and some soy bean plantation areas in Brazil are beginning to spread concern. "The situation in certain areas of Brazil is critical and could worsen if weather conditions remain dry with insufficient humidity during December" underlines the magazine. "Current forecasts only anticipate rainfall to the north and east of the agriculture area", pointed out the magazine which preferred to leave overall production estimates for Brazil "unchanged", waiting for December.