Argentina Downpours Delay Early Wheat Planting Efforts

By Maximilian Heath

BUENOS AIRES, May 22 (Reuters) – Recent heavy rains in Argentina have delayed the country’s wheat planting, as well as its soybean and corn harvests, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Thursday in its weekly crop report.

Argentina’s 2025/26 wheat planting season kicked off this week with just 3.4% of the planned 6.7 million hectares (16.6 million acres) planted so far.

The figure is 10 percentage points behind where it was at the same point last year, and four percentage points under the five-year average.

Argentina is a major global exporter of wheat.

Recent downpours of between 100 and 400 millimeters (4 and 16 inches) caused severe flooding in recent weeks and further soaked fields already waterlogged by showers earlier in the month.

At the same time, the report noted that excessively dry conditions in the country’s north are contributing to wheat planting delays.

In April, the exchange forecast the 2025/26 wheat harvest would reach 20.5 million metric tons.

The rains have also delayed the 2024/25 soybean harvest by 20 percentage points in western parts of the heavily hit Buenos Aires province, the exchange said. The harvest as a whole is 74.3% complete.

The entity on Thursday held its estimate of 50 million tons for the soybean crop but warned earlier this week that production could face significant cuts due to harvest delays.

The also-delayed corn harvest is 38.8% complete, the exchange said, with production estimated at 49 million tons.

Argentina is the world’s leading exporter of soybean oil and meal, and the third-largest exporter of corn.

(Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Aurora Ellis)