CHILE (12 May)
Planting of 2004/05 winter wheat crop is about to start and early official forecast indicates an increase in plantings from 416 000 hectares in previous year to 433 000 hectares. This is expected because of land diversion from oats, whose national prices are expected to fall as a consequence of the 2003/04 record oats crop. Import requirements for the marketing year 2004/05 (July/June) are forecast at 1.1 million tonnes of maize (mostly yellow), 400 000 tonnes of wheat and 110 000 tonnes of rice.