Argentinian Yields in Summer Season 2020
The situation on the wheat market
Key Argentinian wheat regions were affected by mid-August temperature drops. The northern part of the country is undergoing repetitive drought periods. Among others Córdoba is about to lose 340,000 hectares of the wheat area from what was sown last year during the crop season. During the first week of September, yields in the Pampa region were moistened by rains; yet they need much more water to recover from months of dryness. Overall, Argentinian wheat planting areas use 6.6 million hectares from which 18.8 million tonnes of the grain was produced last season. Grain exports for December and January in total reached more than 6 million tons.
Corn yield
Although the wheat crops underwent some losses, the Argentinian maize crop was very rich. As Fertilizar Asociación Civil, Argentinian non-profit civil association claims, corn was the main grain produced in 2019. Such an outcome means that for the first time in 24 years, soybean hasn’t been the main crop. Organization representative Jorge Bassi commented that “Corn becomes the grain most produced in an international context of medium to low prices thanks to the work done by the entire sector in recent years, which allowed it to gain productivity and stability, successfully adapting to different environments.”. An increase in the crop was partially caused by effective genetic modification of vegetables, as corn became more resilient to water stress and changing weather conditions. The most increase in yield crop was noticed in central Argentina (Córdoba, Santa Fe and La Pampa regions), as the average yields increased from 82.2 qq/ha to 93,85 qq/ha.
