Argentine soyabean yields dropped to 2.23 tonnes per hectare as harvesting expanded into areas hardest hit by a four-month drought that ended in April, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in its weekly crop report on Thursday. With 89.3 percent of this year's crop collected, the exchange kept its estimate for the 2017/18 season unchanged at 36 million tonnes. Of that expected total harvest, 33.5 million tonnes of soyabeans have been brought in so far, the report said.
Harvesting of the estimated 16.8 million hectares planted with soya this season was delayed earlier this month when key farm areas were hit by torrential rains that made it impossible for heavy harvesting combines to enter drenched fields.
Harvest estimates generally have dropped from the 55 million-tonne range to below 40 million tonnes as damage from the drought was factored into analysts' calculations. Argentina is the world's biggest exporter of soyameal livestock feed and soyaoil.