High wheat prices, a government tax rebate plan and expected good weather will prompt Argentine farmers to expand planting of the grain by 40 percent this season compared with the 2012/13 crop year, Agriculture Secretary Lorenzo Basso said on Tuesday.
"The area will be close to 4.5 million hectares, for sure," Basso told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit. In the 2012/13 growing season, which ended in February, the Argentine government says farmers sowed wheat on 3.16 million hectares, the smallest area on record. Other estimates vary. The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange forecasts Argentina's 2013/14 wheat area at 3.9 million hectares, up from its estimate of 3.6 million last season.
Argentine 2013/14 wheat planting has already begun and the country is a key supplier to neighbouring Brazil. Farmers have however turned to other crops in recent years due to government export curbs meant to ensure ample domestic food supplies, but that growers say distort prices. In March, Argentine officials authorised exports of 5 million tonnes of 2013/14 wheat as part of the drive to increase production. In the past, export quotas were announced in small increments, a system farmers disliked because they said it made accurate crop planning impossible.
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