If weather conditions are favourable, Brazil's next grain crop should match or surpass record production achieved in the last harvest, according to the agriculture minister.

The world's No. 2 soy producer filled silos to the brim with the protein-rich grain this season with a harvest thought to have produced around 68.7 million tonnes and some growers had to rent out nearby sports halls to store the surplus.

"We hope to at least repeat the record we had this year. But the grains harvest is highly dependent on the question of climate," said Wagner Rossi.

He said soy and corn producers now had sufficient access to credit to sustain their production after a large increase in the government's annual rural credit plan for the agriculture sector as a whole, announced a month ago.

Brazil's corn harvest during the 2009/10 campaign was expected to reach 54.2 million tonnes according to the ministry's technical agency, Conab, rising from 51 million tonnes in the previous season.

Achieving a repeat of last year's grain output will require the timely return of rains in the spring in September, something that is in doubt with the approach of a La Nina weather anomaly later this year. It tends to reduce ocean water evaporation and can lead to drought in parts of Brazil, which could cause problems for growers trying to sow around then.

The 2009/10 soy crop has now been fully gathered and more than two thirds has already been sold.