July 8, 2009

National Commodities Supply Corp., or Conab, Tuesday (Jul 7) estimated Brazil's 2008-09 soy crop at 57.1 million tonnes.

Conab's 10th crop estimate is 4.8-percent below the 2007-08 harvest of 60 million tonnes. The estimate, though, is unchanged from the month-ago forecast for the crop, the agency said.

Conab, which is part of Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, said the soy harvest is completed in all the producing regions of the country.

Brazil overall is forecast to produce 133.8 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds, including soy, corn and wheat in the 2008-09 crop year, Conab said. This figure is 7.2-percent below the 144.1 million tonnes in 2007-08, Conab said in its forecast made from the federal capital Brasilia.

The total for the grains and oilseeds crop is 0.3-percent less than the estimate of 134.2 million tonnes made a month ago.

Soy productivity was 6.6-percent less nationally for the 2008-09 crop compared with a year earlier, Conab said. In the states of Mato Grosso and Goias, the lower productivity was due to less use of fertilisers and irregular weather, the federal agency said.

Productivity in Parana state tumbled 22 percent to 2,337 kg per hectare from 2,991 kg, Conab said. Weather, coupled with fewer inputs, was responsible for the tumble in output in Parana state for the 2008-09 soy crop, Conab said.

Mato Grosso, Brazil's biggest producer of soy, had output of just under 18 million tonnes for the recently completed 2008-09 crop, an increase of 0.6 percent from a year earlier, Conab said. Productivity, though, fell two percent to 3,082 kg per hectare, according to the report.

Parana, the country's second-largest soy producer state, harvested 9.5 million tonnes of soy in the recent crop, 20-percent below the year-earlier harvest, Conab said.

Brazil is the world's second-biggest soy producer after the US.