MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina expects record corn yield and exceptional sorghum crop

Abundant rainfall is vital for summer harvests

Argentina, the world’s second-largest corn exporter could increase output by more than 42% this year from initial estimates as spring rains boost yields to a record, the country’s main corn growers group said.

The harvest starting next month may produce 17 million metric tons, compared with an estimate of 12 million tons as recently as December, according to Martin Fraguio, executive director of Maizar.

“Corn available for export this year will rise to more than 9 million tons, compared with 7.5 million last year”, said Fraguio who also pointed out that yields could mark a historic record of 8.000 kilos per hectare because of the abundant and “almost perfect” rainfall.

Yields, on average, have been about 6.6 tons per hectare during the past five years, according to the Ministry of Agriculture in Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange last week gave its first estimate for this year’s crop. It expects production of 15.8 million tons.

Output in the 2008-2009 season fell to 13.1 million tons because of drought. The dry weather was the worst in a century, the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange said, causing the harvest to fall from a record 22 million tons in the prior season. This year’s crop covers 2 million hectares, the smallest in 20 years.

Corn growers have requested a meeting with officials of the national agricultural exports control office to argue that the government should ease restrictions on exports since domestic demand of 8 million tons will be met.

Corn exports require Oncca permits, as do soybean, wheat sunflowers and certain other agricultural products.

The Argentine government has limited exports of beef, corn and wheat since 2006 to provide cheaper food to the domestic market. No grain exports were allowed from June 24 through September, when the government ended the export ban, without saying how much corn it would allow to be shipped overseas.

This year’s exportable surplus will also be boosted by increases in production of sorghum and feed barley, which will replace domestic corn consumption, Maizar’s Fraguio said.

Sorghum production is expected to total 5 million tons and feed barley production about 400,000 tons, Fraguio said.

“About 1.2 million to 2 million tons of sorghum will be exported, with the rest complementing or substituting corn in the domestic market,” he said. Feed barley will also be used in the domestic market in place of corn, he said. A ton of both sorghum and feed barley can replace about a ton of corn, he said.

The last time sorghum production surpassed 5 million tons was in 1984-1985, with 6.2 million tons, according to Agriculture ministry records.

Water shortages between 2007 and early 2009, when Argentina suffered its worst drought in a century, helped farmers improve production efficiency, Fraguio said.