Chile: Wheat Crop Strong
6 May 2008 With prices high and weather favorable, Chile is expecting another good wheat harvest, according to the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service (USDA-FAS).
After a successful 2007 crop, initial planting surveys show that growers are planning to increase the planted areas for wheat next year. There are an estimated 89,000 wheat producers in Chile, of which a little over 10,000 producers are in the so-called subsistence group with little or no alternative crops. Just over 70,000 are small farmers, 5,000 are medium-sized producers, and less than 3,000 are large producers.
While the prices for competitive oats are also high, the increases of fuel and fertilizers prices has made wheat more attractive than oats, as it is a lower cost and less risky crop, particularly in the Temuco and Osorno regions, where over the 50% of the total wheat is planted.
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