BUENOS AIRES, March 18 (Reuters) - A
sudden blast of Arctic air shocked late-planted soy fields in parts of
Argentina's main grains province Buenos Aires over the weekend, putting
pressure on harvest expectations in one of the world's top exporters of beans
and soy byproducts.
The government expects a harvest of
51 million to 52 million tonnes of soybeans while consumer nations - in need of
food supplies after disappointing grains crops in the United States, Russia and
Australia - are counting on South American breadbaskets Brazil and Argentina to
provide ample harvests.
Temperatures of 0 to 2 degrees
Celsius (32-36 degrees Fahrenheit), unusually low for Argentina's late summer
season, hit southern Buenos Aires on Saturday morning. The frosts returned on
Sunday, concentrated in the southwestern part of the province.
"Surely it has done damage,
especially to the very late planted soybeans that went into the ground in
December. But we can't measure the damage for another seven to 10 days, when
the damaged plants will turn from green to brown," said Anthony Deane,
head of consultancy Weather-Wise Argentina.
Aside from being the No. 1 exporter
of soyoil, used in the booming international biofuels sector, and soymeal
animal feed, Argentina is the world's No. 3 supplier of soybeans and corn.
Its 2012/13 corn crop is not as
likely to be damaged by the cold snap as corn fields are well past the
flowering stages during which plants are most vulnerable to frost.
The government expects a 2012/13
corn crop of 27 million tonnes. More than 12 percent of the country's corn
harvest has been collected, and soy harvesting is just getting started.
"This drop in temperatures
could strengthen the probability that Argentina's soybean harvest will come in
at the low end of expectations," said David Hughes, who manages soy, corn
and wheat farms in Buenos Aires.
The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange
expects Argentina to harvest 48.5 million tonnes of soybeans this season and 25
million tonnes of corn. Both estimates are down from earlier projections due to
the difficult and widely oscillating weather.
The Pampas grains belt started the
2012/13 season with hard rains that flooded wide swathes of farmland. The same
areas were parched by excessively dry, hot weather later in the season.
