January 2, 2004

Paraguay Corn Exports Expected to Reach $65 Million

Paraguay's corn exports are expected to hit $65 million in 2003 with a volume of close to one million tons. This puts corn ahead of cotton as Paraguay's second largest export commodity. Paraguay's largest export remains soy.

Corn exports are expected to bring in revenues of some $65 million, compared to cotton estimates at between $50 million and $55 million, according to Luis Enrique Cubilla, an adviser from the Paraguayan Grain and Oilseed Exporters Association (Capeco).

Cubilla told the La Nacion newspaper that the latest report, dated Dec. 19, shows corn exports of 830,424 tons, but that figure could reach more than one million tons by year-end.

The one-million-ton figure would be double the record-setting 500,000 tons exported in 2000.

Previously, corn exports totaled 270,000 tons and 320,000 tons in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

Higher corn production is partly due to excellent weather conditions that have resulted in yields of 5,000 kilos per hectare, sold at $95 per ton.