NTERVIEW-Argentine corn area to increase 20 pct in 2016-17, minister – RTRS

By Nelson Bocanegra

MEDELLIN, Colombia, June 17 (Reuters) – Argentina’s area planted with corn could increase 20 percent during the 2016-17 growing season, raising production by between 10 million and 15 million tonnes from the previous year, the country’s agriculture minister said.

The boost to corn in the world’s fourth-largest exporter of the crop would come at the expense of soy, Agro-Industrial Minister Ricardo Buryaile said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s Latin America meeting in Colombia late on Thursday, as the two grains compete for cultivation space.

“We estimate that we are going to have an increase in the cultivations of around 20 percent,” Buryaile told Reuters. “We could have between 10 and 15 million more tonnes of corn.”

“We will obviously have a reduction in the area of soy as a consequence of the increase in the production of corn and we estimate that from the 60 million that there were, soy production will surely fall to 55 million tonnes.”

The minister said he based his increase estimates on 2015-16 corn production of 25 million tonnes, below the forecasts of the Rosario grain exchange and the U.S. Agriculture Department, which both predict output of 27 million tonnes.

Argentina is the world’s top exporter of soymeal used in livestock feed and soy oil.

The wheat crop will rise 50 percent in 2016-17 to between 15 million and 16 million tonnes, Buryaile said, up from 10.5 million tonnes.

Higher corn and wheat production will represent some $400 million in additional investment because of an increase in cultivated areas, the minister said.

The Argentine government will “surely” settle a dispute with Monsanto Co  MON.N over the inspection of shipments of genetically modified soybeans next week, Buryaile said.

Monsanto and President Mauricio Macri’s government have been at loggerheads since March over the company’s request to have exporting companies inspect soybean shipments to make sure farmers paid royalties on soybean seed technology.

Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, threatened to suspend launches of future soybean technologies in Argentina, a move that could limit output of the country’s main cash crop.

“Basically what we’ve said is the state controls the legality of the seeds, deciding the rules of the game of how its arbitrated and private businesses work and earn money as they should,” the minister said.

“We are dynamic defenders of private activity,” Buryaile added. “But the government makes the rules.”