Argy 2010 Soybean Crop Seen Up 62%

Argentina will produce 52 MMT of soybeans in 2010, according to the US agricultural attaché. That's an increase of 62.5% on last season drought-riddled crop of just 32 MMT.

Plantings will come in at a record 18.5 million hectares, up 7.5% from last year's 17.2 million ha, he says.

Yields will come in at 2.81 MT/ha, up from just 2.00 MT/ha in 2009, he estimates.

The increased production will enable domestic crush (in the marketing year Apr10/Mar11) to increase to 37.0 MMT from 32.5 MMT. Bean exports will almost triple to 12.0 MMT from 4.2 MMT, he says.

He also forecasts sunseed output at 3.5 MMT (2.9), with plantings up to 2.0 million hectares (1.8) and a yield of 1.75 MT/ha (1.60).

Note: His record soybean area figure of 18.5 million hectares is actually towards the low end of some trade estimates, 19-20 million have been mentioned elsewhere. They've just dropped their wheat planted area alone by almost 1.5 million hectares remember.