In Pehuajo, which lies in the eastern part of top grains province Buenos Aires, "crop conditions are excellent," the report said, "although it has been difficult to seed all areas that had been planned for soyabeans due to soggy topsoils." Violent storms in eastern Cordoba province this month damaged fields to the point where some are not expected to be planted this year. Cordoba is Argentina's No 2 soya producing province after Buenos Aires.
However, farmers in most of the main crop belt have made up for lost time with plantings over the last two weeks. Acreage lost to flooding this year should be offset by wider seedings elsewhere, analysts say. Argentine growers have planted 84 percent of the 19.4 million hectares expected to be seeded with soyabeans this season, the government report said. Sowing progressed by 7 percentage points in the seven days through Thursday but remained 3 points behind 2011/12's planting pace, it said.
Unstable weather has made for widely divergent 2012/13 soyabean crop estimates. Government officials have said they expect a crop of 55 million tonnes or more while worst-case private estimates are at 45 million tonnes. The Rosario grains exchange, located at Argentina's main grains hub, forecasts 2012/13 soya output at 53 million tonnes. On Friday the exchange issued a report saying that crop conditions vary widely in the country's key soya region.