July 31, 2013

Brazil's 2013-14 soy harvest to rise 9%

According to a report by crop analyst, AgRural, early indicators show that soy area will grow 6% to 29.5 million hectares (73 million acres) next season.

AgRural said that the strengthening of the US dollar against the Brazilian real this year has offset the decline in soy prices, thus making cultivation of the crop economically attractive to producers.

The largest expansion in absolute terms will occur in Mato Grosso, Brazil's largest soy producing state located in the centre-west, with an additional 592,000 hectares. The state, which already plants 7.8 million hectares with soy, has large reserves of degraded pasture which is being converted into farmland use through the application of lime and fertilisers.

Expansion in soy planting will also occur in the southern grain states of Rio Grande do Sul and Parana, where producers will be switching a greater share of their initial summer corn crops to soy, while planting more corn during the winter crop season, AgRural data showed.

Summer corn planting area is expected to fall by 13% from this year's 6.89 million hectares, AgRural added.

Late last week, analyst Safras e Mercado released its first forecast of new soy crops, with an expectation of a record 88.17 million tonnes of ouput, up 7% from this year's level.