ARGENTINE: Argentine shipments of corn and soybeans, two major exports for the agricultural powerhouse, have bounced back so far this season, the Rosario grains exchange said on Friday, despite a leafhopper plague and lower US demand weighing on prices.

Corn shipments are up 34% and soybean shipments up 67% for the first six months of the season compared to a year ago, the exchange said in a report. The value of exports, however, rose only 5% for corn to $4.07 billion and were up 39% for soy to $8.98 billion.

Halfway through the current corn season, Rosario expects the corn harvest up 36% at 49 million metric tons. Exports in the first half of the season neared 20 million tons, it said, 5.1 million tons more than this time last year.

August corn exports however hit their lowest volumes in almost a decade, largely due a spiroplasma plague affecting late-season harvests, spread by leafhopper insects. Soybean production is meanwhile up 150% compared to the previous season, which produced the lowest crop this century amid a severe drought. Exports reached 19.7 million tons so far this season, 8% higher than the five-year average. Even so, soy prices were down some 25% while corn slid 20% from the previous year.

Rosario pointed to higher-than-usual production in the United States which has caused prices of key crops in the Chicago market to hit four-year lows, although a recent Midwestern heatwave sparked concerns that shored up prices.

Argentina’s largest corn contract closed on Thursday at $156 per ton, with soybean settling at $364.7 per ton, Rosario said. The exchange also flagged lower water levels in the Parana river, which runs by the port of Rosario and is used to ship out grains. These reached just half a meter in the last few months, the lowest level in 19 months and down from nearly 5 meters at the start of this year. “Projections indicate that there will be no recovery in the river height at the Rosario hydrometer in the coming months,” it said.