April 4, 2007

AgRural ups Brazil's soy crop to 60 million tonnes

In the most optimistic Brazilian soy crop estimate to date, consulting group AgRural said the country's farmers will harvest a whopping 60.04 million tonnes of soybeans in the 2006/07 crop.

Private figures have been increasing on an almost weekly basis as Brazil comes to the final laps of its soy harvest. Consulting firm Celeres estimated a 58.6-million-tonne crop on Monday. Last week, another farm consultancy raised its estimate by some 2 million tonnes to 58.4 million tonnes.

The official government estimate comes out later this week. The government figures put the crop around 56.7 million tonnes.

AgRural joins the fray on Tuesday, raising its estimate from the previous 57.4 million tonnes forecast in March.

Meanwhile, AgRural also said that Brazil's new 2006/07 soy crop is 69 percent harvested as of April 3. The number is 14 points higher than last week's harvest report.

Brazil is the world's no. 2 soy producer behind the US.