Argentine farmers have gathered nearly all 2011/12 soyabeans but final harvesting is being slowed by heavy rains in areas parched by drought earlier in the season, a leading grains exchange said on Thursday.
The Pampas grains belt, one of the world's most important food-supplying regions, was hit by a December-January dry spell followed by flooding in May and June in some parts of top-producing province Buenos Aires.
Rainfall in some areas has been the heaviest in a century, forcing farmers to write off fields where harvesting machines have gotten bogged down in the mud, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in its weekly crop report.
"Countrywide, there are 580,000 hectares (1.4 million acres) yet to be harvested, 70 percent of which are in Buenos Aires province where extensive areas have had delays because combine harvesters cannot enter fields due to lack of solid ground," it said.
Some 96.8 percent of Argentina's soya fields have been collected, marking progress over the last week of 1.8 percentage points. The exchange kept is 2011/12 soya crop estimate unchanged at 39.9 million tonnes, down 18.9 percent from last year.
The government expects soya production of 41.5 million tonnes this season after the six-week dry spell dashed initial hopes of a bumper crop. Argentina is the No 3 soya producer and exporter after the United States and Brazil.
Global food demand is expected by the United Nations to double by 2050 as world population hits 9 billion. Boasting a grains belt bigger than the entire size of France, Argentina will be a key food supplier over the decades ahead.
But growers have long criticised President Cristina Fernandez for scaring away investment with policies that have increased the state's role in the economy. They say profits are hurt by the 35-percent tax put on soyabean exports and by wheat and corn export curbs meant to ensure domestic food supplies.
Export companies with operations in Argentina include Cargill Inc, Bunge Ltd Molinos Rio de la Plata , and Noble Group Ltd.
A bit more than one-fourth of the 3.8 million hectares (9.4 million acres) expected to be planted with wheat in the 2012/13 season has gone into the ground, the exchange said. If the wheat area estimate is accurate, it would mark a 17 percent decrease from 2011/12 plantings.
Argentina is the world's sixth-biggest wheat exporter and the key supplier to neighbouring Brazil, but growers have been planting less of the crop in recent years due to complaints about the government's export quota system.
Dry weather in central-northern Cordoba province has made wheat planting difficult. If rains expected to hit that area do not materialise over the days ahead, the exchange said it may prompt a cut in its national wheat area estimate.
Argentina is also the second biggest exporter of corn, after the United States. The exchange kept its 2011/12 corn crop estimate unchanged at 19.3 million tonnes.
More than 67 percent of this season's corn has been harvested, the report said, marking progress of 2.6 percentage point over the previous week.
Argentina's Agriculture Ministry expects 2011/12 corn output of 20.1 million tonnes, far below the record 30 million tonnes foreseen by officials at the start of planting.
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