Argentine farmers are expected to expand corn planting by 5.2 percent this season, the government said last Thursday, as the free-market policies of President Mauricio Macri encourage crop rotation after decades of over-planting soya. Soon after taking office in late 2016 Macri eliminated a 20 percent tax that had been placed on international corn shipments and ditched the strict export controls that the previous government had placed on corn and wheat.
The opening of the market has prompted growers to plant both grains in areas that had long been dedicated only to soya, which had not been subject to export controls. Farmers on Argentina's vast Pampas grains belt are expected to sow 8.92 million hectares (22 million acres) with corn, up from 8.48 million hectares (21 million acres) in the 2016/17 crop year, the agricultural ministry said in its monthly crop report.
An increase in output from one of the world's top three corn exporters would add to a global grains glut, with supplies bloated by favourable weather, increasingly high-tech farm practices and tougher plant breeds. Argentina's main corn producing rival are the United States and Brazil.
Never has the world produced so much more food than can be consumed in one season. Global ending stock of total grains - the leftover supplies before a new harvest - have climbed for four straight years.