March 21, 2006

Brazil's Conab puts 2005/06 soy at 57.2 million tonnes

Brazil's National Commodities Supply Corp (Conab) said Monday (Mar 20) that Brazil should harvest 57.2 million tonnes of soybeans in 2005/06, revising their January estimate down by 1.7 percent from 58.17 million tonnes.

Conab has revised its earlier estimate because of weather concerns in pockets of Parana and Bahia states, where local farmers and agriculture officials were talking of losses of up to 50 percent in some towns.

The lowest 2005/06 soy crop estimate to date was made on Feb 6 by agricultural consulting firm, AgroConsult, which put the crop at 55.3 million tonnes.

Conab's forecast for Brazil's total corn crop is 40.85 million tonnes. The main summer crop was revised down 2.9 percent to 31.91 million tonnes from the January estimate of nearly 32.87 million tonnes, while the secondary crop is seen at 8.94 million tonnes.