Buenos Aires | Reuters—Argentina’s corn harvest, already cut sharply due a stunt disease spread by leafhopper insects, was “likely” to be slashed significantly further, a Rosario grains exchange analyst said on Wednesday, a blow to the embattled South American country.
Argentina, the world’s no. 3 corn exporter, once expected a record haul of corn, but since March the crop has been hit by an unprecedented outbreak of bugs, which led the exchange to slash its forecast by 6.5 million tons to 50.5 million tons last week.
Leafhoppers are insects that carry the harmful spiroplasma disease and whose population tends to spread in hot and dry conditions.
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“Corn is very affected and this is something we fear and that worries us,” Cristian Russo, head of agricultural estimates at the Rosario Stock Exchange, told Reuters.
“It is likely that this will be a factor in further losses, which will not be minor losses.”
Russo said that in the worst-hit northern provinces such as Chaco, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán, the losses caused by the disease ranged between 40 per cent and 50 per cent, when normally the figure only reached five per cent at worst.
He added that severe cases of leafhoppers, which thrive in humid and warm conditions, were also being seen in regions where they usually did not appear, a reflection of the unusual nature of this year’s damaging outbreak.
“It has reached areas where it never reached before. It took the technicians by surprise. It hit the center and north of (the province of) Santa Fe and (the province of) Córdoba very hard and reached the (agricultural) core region,” Russo said.
—updated Apr. 17 to read 50.5 million tonnes instead of 50.5 tonnes.
