BUENOS AIRES: Argentine soya planting area will shrink by up to 4 percent this year as farmers use more land to produce corn, analysts said, citing the government’s elimination of corn export taxes.

Argentina is the world’s No. 3 corn and soyabean supplier. Growers around the Pampas farm belt will start sowing both crops next month, at the start of the Southern Hemisphere spring.

It will be the first full planting season under President Mauricio Macri, who ditched the 20 percent tax that had been placed on corn exports soon after taking office in December.

The expected increase in corn sowing will have an almost equal and opposite effect on soyabean cultivation, Rodolfo Rossi, president of the Acsoja soya industry chamber, said in an interview.

“The impact will be direct. There will be more corn planting in areas that would otherwise been used for soya,” he said.

Acsoja forecasts soya area will drop 2.5 percent to 19.7 million hectares in the 2016/17 season.

While corn is no longer subject to export taxes, international soya shipments still face a levy of 30 percent. Macri cut the tax by 5 percentage points in December and promises to keep cutting it by 5 percentage points per year.—Reuters