Argentina Rains ‘Turn Game Around’ for Grains After Drought, Exchange Says

By Maximilian Heath

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Strong rains this week in Argentina have given a huge boost to the farming sector after a tough period of drought, “turning the game around” for corn and wheat farmers who had been facing deep losses, the Rosario grains exchange said on Wednesday.

The exchange said in a report that between 30 and 90 millimeters of rain fell in the last 24 hours in much of the agricultural core region of Argentina, the world’s third largest corn exporter and a key global supplier of wheat.

That had totally changed the outlook for the crops.

“We were losing 3-0 against the drought. With the rains last week we were 3-2, and with what is happening now we would be winning 4-3,” Cristian Russo, head of agricultural estimates at the Rosario exchange, said in the report.

For 2024/25 wheat, the recent rains have arrived at a “crucial” time in the last weeks of yield development, the exchange said. At the start of the month it cut its harvest estimate for the cereal to 19.5 million metric tons due to lack of rain. The wheat harvest begins in November.

In the case of 2024/25 season corn, the rain will allow farmers to resume delayed planting, it added, while soy planting would be able to get going “with greater intensity in the coming weeks” now that conditions had improved.

Argentina is the world’s top exporter of processed soy oil and meal, products that are a key driver for the economy.

The Rosario exchange forecasts a corn harvest of 51-52 million tons in the 2024/25 cycle and a soybean production of between 52-53 million tons. Corn sowing started in September and soy planting recently in the second half of October.

(Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Editing by Nicolas Misculin, Adam Jourdan and Diane Craft)