URUGUAY (15 February)
Harvesting of the 2002 wheat crop has been recently completed and the output is provisionally estimated at about 280 000 tonnes, almost twice the flood-affected harvest of 2001 but still below the past five-year average. Harvest of the 2002 barley crop has also been completed and production is estimated at about an average 170 000 tonnes. Harvesting of the 2003 coarse grain crops, as well as that of the important paddy crop, is due to start from March. A recovery in paddy production is anticipated. Paddy output in 2002 was a below-average 940 000 tonnes, largely the result of unattractive prices and constraints to producers.