Drought to cost Argentina 30% of corn exports

"Extremely dry conditions and very high temperatures during December and the first half of January, coinciding with the key period of corn flowering, has diminished production drastically," the attaches said in a report.

"In most of Argentina all plantations are somehow affected, but in the central area of the country there are many plantations which were completely lost.

"Some producers cut them for silage, others have turned cattle out for grazing, and others have left them or sown soybeans with a significant risk."