April 19, 2012

Brazil to boost grain crop acreage

The area planted for grain crops in Brazil is seen at 52.29 million hectares and is over 4.8% than the cultivated crop in 2010/11, 49.89 ha, according to a survey by Conab (Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento).

This represents an increase of 2.40 million hectares.

Among the main summer crops, the first and second corn and soy crops, show growth, especially for the corn second crop, which had an increase of 20.1% or 1,181,500 hectares, followed by soy, with a rise of 34% (817,100 hectares) and the first corn crop, with a rise of 8.4% or 664.0000 tonnes.

The rice and bean crops have seen a reduction in area planted. For beans, this is because of the difficulties in marketing and depressed prices, and for rice it is the lack of water in reservoirs, increasing the cost of production and unattractive prices.

Production is estimated at 159.20 million tonnes, 2.2% less than that obtained in 2010/11, when it reached 162.84 million tonnes. This represents a reduction of 3.63 million tonnes.

The largest reduction is was in soy (9.72 million tonnes) and rice (1.95 million tonnes).

The decrease is mainly due to unfavourable weather conditions, especially in the period from November 15, 2011 to January 15, 2012, which affected corn and soy, especially in southern states, part of Southeast and Southwest of Mato Grosso do Sul. For the second corn crop, the forecast is for growth of 35.1%, equivalent to 7.54 million tonnes.