April 18, 2006

 

Cold weather in southern Brazil will not affect corn, soy crops

 

 

A cold front brought frost to parts of Brazil's Santa Catarina state on Monday (Apr 17) and general winter-like temperatures throughout the South, but agronomists said the unusual cold snap would not hurt soy and winter corn crops.

 

"Santa Catarina soy fields are all in the west, and there's no frost there," said Fabio Meneghin, a soy analyst at agribusiness consultancy, Agroconsult in Santa Catarina.

 

The state is expected to harvest around 831,000 tonnes of soy in the 2005/06 harvest, according to government estimates.

 

A cold front is expected to last all week in the South, home to the second and third largest soy producers, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul. Most of Parana has already harvested soybeans, with Rio Grande do Sul roughly 40 percent harvested according to AgRural, an agriculture market information and consulting firm.

 

"There's no more green soy around. It's all dried up and ready to harvest so cold weather does not do us any harm," said Carlos Schmitt, an agronomist at Comacel in Rio Grande do Sul. Schmitt said that 70 percent of Comacel's properties have finished the 2005/06 harvest.

 

Rio Grande do Sul is expected to harvest 8 million tonnes of soybeans from the 2005/06 crop.

 

"There's no risk of frost damage whatsoever in Rio Grande do Sul," said David Brew, soy analyst for brokerage firm BraSoja in Rio Grande do Sul.

 

Meanwhile, in Parana state, Brazil's top corn producer, a cold weather forecast by weather service ClimaTempo Monday drove up local corn futures for September on the Brazilian Commodities and Futures Exchange on Monday to 16.70 Brazilian reals (US$7.84) per 60-kilogramme bag, Meneghin said.

 

Parana farmers have already planted corn for the much smaller winter crop. The state's farmers should harvest 3 million tonnes of corn from their winter crop.

 

Government estimates are for Parana to harvest roughly 9.6 million tonnes of soy in the 2005/06 crop. Most of the state has already harvested.

 

Brazil is the world's second-largest soy producer following the US Dry weather in pockets of Parana and elsewhere has already helped reduce the overall 2005/06 soy crop to 55.7 million tonnes, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

 

Brazil's total corn production for the 2005/06 should be around 40.8 million tonnes.