(Photo: FAEB System)
Argentine farmers are preferring military to the corn in the 2024/25 harvest due to the profitability of the oilseed and the persistence of fears about a disease that impacted the cereal harvest last year, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange reported this Wednesday (25).
Soybean production this season is expected to rise about 3% from the previous season to 52 million metric tons, according to exchange estimates, while corn production is expected to fall about 5% to 47 million tons.
Argentina is the world's largest exporter of soybean oil and meal, and the third largest exporter of corn.
“We shouldn’t be surprised (by the trend),” said Ramiro Costa, who heads the exchange’s economic studies, in a presentation in Buenos Aires.
Soybeans and corn have the same planting period in Argentina and therefore compete for the same cultivation area.
The exchange expects farmers to turn to soybeans “in the context of the spittlebug threat and an unfavorable input-output relationship for corn,” Costa said.
Last season, corn suffered serious losses due to a bacteria transmitted by the leafhopper, which stunts the crop. Leafhoppers have no impact on soybeans.
Meanwhile, the exchange raised its forecast for this season's wheat crop by nearly 3% from its May estimate to 18.6 million tonnes.
Argentina is a major exporter of wheat and its harvest begins in November.