March 19, 2004

 

 

Brazil Soy Crop Forecast 21% Reduction In Key Growing Area

 

Brazil's top soy growing state Mato Grosso will see a crop reduction of 21% following bad weather and the Asian rust banner, the state government said on Thursday.

 

The agriculture secretary in Lucas do Rio Verde, traditionally the first municipality to harvest soy in Brazil, said soybean output had fallen to 600,000 tons from an average of 760,000 over the past few years, based on field data with 97 percent of the crop harvested.

 

"It was our worst harvest in 8 years," Agriculture Secretary Jose Henrique Hasse told Reuters.

 

Some of the 225,000 hectares (556,000 acres) on which soybeans are grown in the municipality in north-central Mato Grosso were lost in the field due to late rains.

 

Hasse said the region received 170 centimeters (67 inches) of rain between Dec. 20 and Feb. 20. "Half of that is a normal volume of rain for this period," he said.

 

The delay in harvesting of the soy will also likely reduce the planted area and output of the winter corn crop that normally follows the soy harvest. Hasse said the appropriate time for planting corn had passed.

 

Only 120,000 hectares (297,000 acres) of summer corn in Lucas will be planted, compared with the 170,000 (420,000 acres) forecast earlier in the season. Winter corn output is expected to be 480,000 tonnes, well below the 700,000 tonnes harvested last year.

 

Aside from losses due to rain, crop yields have also been reduced by Asian soy rust in the region.

 

"Rust arrived strong. The (fungicide) product I used last year didn't work well. I don't know why," producer Ivan Luiz Brizot, who plants 2,200 hectares (54,300 acres) of soy in Lucas, said. "There were also mature beans that sprouted because I couldn't get machines in to harvest. I left them there in the fields."

 

Brizot said his fields yielded about 40 (60-kilogram) bags per hectare on average this season, down from 60 bags last year. The municipality's average soy yield is 45 bags this season, according to the agriculture secretariat.

 

Despite the poor returns, Hasse did not expect the planted area to shrink next year.

 

"Even though (producers) had losses, they should get financing for the next crop and I expect the (planted) area to stay the same," he said.

 

The municipality is not expected to see planted area grow because nearly all arable land has been developed, said Hasse. Soy planting is expanding to the north of Lucas in Mato Grosso, toward the border with the Amazon state of Para.