Foreign media November 1 news: South American crop expert Dr. Michael Cordogne said that the spring weather in Paraguay was generally favorable for planting, and the 2022/23 soybean planting work is nearing the end.

Farmers began planting soybeans in late August and progressed rapidly during September. Frequent rains in October slowed down some planting work, but farmers had already completed most of the planting work by then. Soybean planting in Paraguay generally starts earlier than in neighboring Brazil, with the earliest planted soybeans being harvested around Dec. 15. Active rainfall in October helped replenish soil moisture depleted after a prolonged drought, providing favorable conditions for the initial growth of soybeans.

Dr. Cordogne expects Paraguay to produce around 10 million tonnes of soybeans in 2022/23, up from 4.2 million tonnes the previous year. In 2021/22, the market had originally expected Paraguay soybean production to reach about 10 million tons, but as Paraguay suffered the worst drought on record, the final soybean production was only 4.2 million tons.

Paraguayan farmers are slow to sign pre-sale contracts because they want to know the scale of production before signing contracts. Farmers have pre-sold about 16% of the new beans, which is 30% lower than normal. Last year’s drought prevented some farmers from fulfilling pre-sale contracts, so don’t expect that to happen this year.

For the third year in a row, La Niña, the weather that typically makes southern Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina drier than normal. The weather in Argentina is very dry right now. Brazil’s National Weather Service forecast drier-than-normal weather in November in the states of Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, which are close to Paraguay’s main soybean producing areas. November and December will be key growing seasons for Paraguayan soybeans, so farmers may wait until November weather changes before considering pre-sale contracts.