BUENOS AIRES, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Argentina's Buenos Aires grains exchange on Thursday cut forecasts across its 2023/24 wheat and corn crops but increased its projection for the land it will sow with soybeans, as late rainfall hit farmers across the country's agricultural core.
The exchange now expects 17.3 million hectares (42.75 million acres) will be sown with soybeans, compared to a previous 17.1-million-hectare forecast. Some 18% of this new estimate has now been planted, it said in a weekly report.
"The return of rainfall from late October has changed the panorama when it comes to water, freeing up fields so they can be sown with early soybeans," the exchange said.
Argentine farmlands benefited from higher-than-average rainfall in the first half of November, coinciding with the El Nino weather phenomenon in the South American country, which is a major worldwide grains exporter.
This follows a devastating drought last season which saw the country's grain production slashed even as the country battled a worsening economic crisis and sky-rocketing inflation.
While the grains exchange said rainfall had helped boost soybean forecasts, it said the later-than-expected rains complicated corn planting, causing it to cut its planting estimate to 7.1 million hectares from 7.3 million hectares.
While wheat benefited from the rains, fields were also hit by frost, causing the exchange to cut its harvest estimate to 14.7 million metric tons from a prior 15.4 million tons. (Reporting by Maximilian Heath and Sarah Morland; Editing by Kylie Madry and Sandra Maler)
