BUENOS AIRES, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Argentina corn and soybean crops are continuing to improve thanks to recent rains, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said on Thursday, with more rainfall expected in coming days after the wet weather helped curb damages from a late January heat wave.
As a result of the rains, the exchange said some 52% of the country's soy crop benefited from "normal/excellent" conditions, and this was increasing on a weekly basis. For corn, it added, 57% of the crop boasted these conditions.
Farmers in Argentina, one of the world's largest exporters of soy meal and the third-largest supplier of corn, are set to begin harvesting the 2023/24 crops in April.
The exchange expects some 52.5 million metric tons of soybeans and 56.5 million tons of corn this season.
One of Argentina's state weather agencies had on Wednesday predicted some 10 to 40 millimeters of rain across the southern part of Argentina's agricultural frontier on Thursday, and a similar level in the heartland on Friday.
Northeastern Argentina is meanwhile forecast to receive rain from Sunday to Tuesday, it added. (Reporting by Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires Editing by Matthew Lewis)
