Highlights

Caution on yields due to planting time    Brazil expects total corn to be up 7.6 percent    Increased acreage not enough to make up for US shortfall

April 1, 2008

 

Brazilian states to plant record-breaking winter corn acreage

 

 

Brazil's top two winter corn producing states, Parana and Mato Grosso, will be planting a record amount of corn this winter, state agronomists and analysts said Monday (March 31, 2008).

 

High corn prices are leading the push for corn plantings in Brazil.

 

"Parana will break a record this winter," said Margarete Demarchi, an agronomist for the rural economics department of the Parana State Secretary of Agriculture.

 

Demarchi said corn growers will increase planted area by 7.3 percent to around 1.7 million hectares. Production estimates for the winter crop are 6.4 million tonnes compared to the last record set in 2003, when 6 million tonnes were harvested.

 

Parana is the No. 1 corn producing state in Brazil, followed by Mato Grosso.

 

"We will see record production in Mato Grosso, but there is one note of caution on yields because a lot of this corn was not planted at the ideal times," said Eduardo Godoi, an agronomist in Mato Grosso for farm consultancy AgRural.

 

All farm crops and crop varieties have an ideal planting period in order to best guarantee proper plant growth.

 

Corn is planted in Brazil year round, with the bulk of the crop being planted with soy in the spring and harvested in the summer.

 

However, high corn prices on the Chicago Board of Trade have farmers here planting more in the winter months. Mato Grosso, for example, just plants around 170,000 hectares of corn in the spring and summer because farmers there favour soy. The state is the nation's leading soy producer.

 

According to the National Commodities Supply Corp., or Conab, Mato Grosso planted 1.4 million hectares of corn last year in the winter.

 

Godoi expects Mato Grosso to produce at least 5.6 million tonnes of corn, though Demarchi said state agronomists are expecting it to be around 6.2 million.

 

Parana accounts for 28 percent of Brazil's winter corn output.

 

Conab puts Brazil's winter corn crop at 17.2 million tonnes, up 16.8 percent from 2006-07 output.

 

Including the summer harvest, Brazil is expecting a total of 55.2 million tonnes of corn, up 7.6 percent from 2006-07.

 

The news comes as US corn acreage is expected to be down 8 percent to 86 million acres, according to a USDA report released yesterday.

 

The lower planted area estimate pushed CBOT corn futures to a record high in the morning hours.

 

Paulo Molinari, a corn market analyst at Brazilian agribusiness consultancy Safras & Mercado, said Brazil's record-breaking winter crop will not be enough to make up for shortfalls in the US.

 

As yields in Brazil are lower than that in the US, an increase in acreage does not necessarily mean it would be enough to cover the US shortfall, he explained. 

 

He said that if corn prices remained high by August and September, when Brazil's farmers are planning their spring and summer crops, farmers would still favour soy because they have the option of planting corn in the winter again in 2008-09. Corn is not seen significantly taking away from soy fields next year.

 

Brazil is the world's No. 3 corn exporter behind the US and Argentina.