BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Coming rains are expected to help Argentina’s farmlands continue to recover from the South American country’s worst drought on record, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Wednesday.
Early next week, “most of Argentina’s plains region (pampas) and a large part of Uruguay will experience moderate to abundant precipitation (10-25 millimeters), with isolated centers receiving lower amounts” of rain, the exchange said in its weekly weather report.
The forecast follows rains in May that soaked Argentina’s parched farming provinces and, along with more precipitation this month, have helped the key agriculture sector begin to recover from the historic drought that began in the first half of 2022 and lasted until early this year.
The Buenos Aires exchange warned however that still-dry farmlands in western areas of Argentina’s agricultural region are set to receive little or no rain in the next week.
Farmers in Argentina, one of the world’s leading exporters of corn, wheat and soybean derivatives, are trying to recover from severe production losses caused by the recent drought.
The exchange last week said that July’s rains so far will benefit the development and sowing of Argentina’s 2023/24 wheat crop.
The ongoing El Nino climate phenomenon is likely to cause higher-than-normal rainfall levels in key agricultural regions of the country beginning in September, a forecast that farmers view with optimism.
(Reporting by Maxilimian Heath. Editing by Jane Merriman)
