March 9, 2012

The Brazilian Commodities Corp., or Conab, said Thursday (Mar 8) that Brazil's 2011/12 grain and oilseed harvest will reach 157.81 million tonnes.

In its sixth survey for the 2011/12 crop, Conab forecasts a decline of 3.1%, or 5.03 million tonnes, compared to the record previous harvest of 162.96 million tonnes.

A month ago, Conab had a lower projection of 157.06 million tonnes for the current grain harvest.

Corn and soy alone are expected to represent 83% of production, totalling 130.451 million tonnes, Conab said.

Soy output alone is projected at 68.749 million tonnes, down 8.7%.

Planted area is seen reaching 51.682 million hectares, up 3.6% from 49.888 million hectares in the previous harvest.

Conab's survey was conducted between February 23-29.