August 6, 2007

 

Brazil 2007/08 Mato Grosso soy crop seen up at least 6 percent on-year

 

Brazil's next 2007/08 soy crop in the key producing state of Mato Grosso, for which plantings will start in October, is expected to see cultivated area rise about 6 percent over the 2006/07 harvest, the Mato Grosso Soy Producers Association said Friday (August 3).

 

Total production in the 2007/08 soy harvest in Mato Grosso, Brazil's largest soy-producing state with about 25 percent of total national output, is expected to be up at least 6 percent on the year, said Ricardo Silva, vice president of the association.

 

"We expect to have an increase in the area of about 6 percent from last year where the planted area was 5.5 million hectares. It's going to be between 300,000 to 400,000 more hectares," Silva told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.

 

Silva is in Mexico as part of a 50-strong trade delegation looking at agricultural business opportunities and accompanying Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is scheduled to sign an energy and biofuel pact with Mexico next week.

 

Silva said the latest figure for Mato Grosso is based on a field investigation which ended last month, and which projects that yields will reach at least the average of last year where Mato Grosso soy fields produced 2.8 tonnes per hectare.

 

"It depends on the yield. Last year, our yield average was about 2.8 tonnes per hectare, so production should be up at least 6 percent, but if yields are slightly better then production could be a little higher," he said.

 

Silva also said that while there are no plans to expand the Mato Grosso soy fields further, the cultivated area forecast for 2007/08 plantings "is not all our potential" as the state in some years has planted even larger areas which are still considered part of the Mato Grosso soy area.

 

But he ruled out that the soy plantings could rise more than 6 percent, despite reports earlier this year that put the target as high as 8 percent, saying cotton producers in Mato Grosso also are planning on increasing acreage in the 2007/08 crop.

 

Brazil's agribusiness consultancy Safras & Mercado earlier Friday said high debt and competition from other crops like corn and sugarcane will see Brazilian soy farmers expanding their planted area by about 3 percent to 21.3 million hectares in the 2007/08 soy season.

 

The Safras figures are lower than those of Brazil's Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes, who on Thursday said the total Brazilian soy area is pegged to rise an average 5 percent in the next 2007/08 harvest.