As November goes by, the entry of trucks to unload wheat continues steadily at the ports throughout the country. This month to date, more than a million tons of wheat have already arrived, the second highest value in history for this month of the year. 

In this commercial context, exports continue to accumulate for the crop that formally begins on December 1st. Crop 2021/22 registers business abroad for 9.08 Mt as of November 25th, slightly above the historical mark of 2019/20, which accumulated by this point 9.05 Mt.

Meanwhile, the wheat harvest has been presenting good yields while advancing above the previous season. With 32% of the area already harvested as of November 25th, the wheat harvest is 5 percentage points above the previous crop. Progress is higher not only in relative terms, but also in absolute terms, since the covered area reaches 6.84 million hectares, above the 6.73 M Ha of crop season 2020/21.

On the brink of the new wheat campaign, between the second half of November and the first half of December, shipments for 0.53 Mt of wheat are forecast, with 85% of the total leaving from the Up River ports. Supporting the good omens for the Argentinian wheat trade, this value is comfortably above the 4-year average of 0.42 Mt for this same period. 

Good prospects for barley crop season 21/22

With about 1.35 million hectares planted, barley is well-positioned for the 21/22 crop season. In this way, the planted area increases by more than 17% compared to the previous season, which had its productive epicentre between La Pampa and Buenos Aires. 

Forecasts by the Argentinian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MAGyP, for its Spanish acronym) expect a production close to 4.5 Mt from the crop starting also on December 1st, if we add malting and forage barley. This figure is below the 5.06 Mt of the 18/19 crop season but represents a productive increase of 19% compared to the 20/21 crop.

At the close of the 20/21 crop season, exports of forage barley slightly exceeded those of the 2016/17 trade year. Thus, the second highest level of export sales in at least five years is consolidated. For their part, malting barley export commitments are at a five-year low, with 0.92 Mt recorded in Export Sworn Statements (DJVE, for its Spanish acronym) for the 2020/21 trade year, well below the 1.32 Mt of the 19/20 crop season.

However, exports of forage barley for the 2021/22 crop season already exceed the total declared in the entire current crop. With more than 1.6 Mt declared and the crop season just beginning, sales for only 0.4 Mt are needed to break the historical export record of the 18/19 crop.