Floods in Argentina expected to cause soy crop losses

Buenos Aires | Reuters –– Some of Argentina’s northern soy-growing areas were flooded by heavy rains in the past week, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said Thursday, warning that it may lower its 57 million-tonne 2014-15 harvest forecast in the coming weeks.

The country is the world’s No. 3 soybean exporter and top supplier of soyoil and soymeal livestock feed.

“Abundant rains during the week added to moisture left from showers in February, flooding fields and roads in wide areas of central-northern Cordoba, Santa Fe, north-central Pampas and parts of northeastern Argentina,” the exchange said in its weekly crop report.

“Our soy crop estimate is unchanged at 57 million tonnes, a figure that will be adjusted over the weeks ahead according to the crop losses that are revealed,” it added.

Several thousand residents of the provinces of Santiago del Estero and Cordoba have been evacuated from flooded areas.

At the same time, the exchange said, parts of the southern Pampas grains belt are suffering from overly dry conditions.

“A large percentage of early-planted soy in central and southeast Buenos Aires province is in its pod-filling stage, while later-planted soy is in its flowering stage,” the report said. “Both will suffer losses to potential harvest production due to lack of soil moisture.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Hugh Bronstein.