Argentine farmers had planted 37.3 percent of expected soyabean area as of Thursday, an advance of 15 percentage points from the previous week as rains improved soil conditions, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in its weekly crop report. The exchange has said soya area may surpass the 20.2 million-hectare forecast for the 2013/14 crop thanks to recent rain, as farmers find a new use for areas that were too dry to plant corn and sunseed earlier in the year.
Argentina is the world's top soyaoil and soyameal exporter, the No 3 soyabean and corn supplier, and a wheat exporter. Farmers had harvested 13.1 percent of the 3.6 million hectares they planted with wheat. That was an advance of 6.2 percentage points from the previous week but 5.8 percentage points behind last year.