August 28, 2007

 

Brazil's new 2007/08 soy crop sold 17 percent as of Aug 24

 

 

Brazil's new 2007/08 soy crop was 17 percent sold as of August 24, two percentage points higher than last week's figure, according to agribusiness consulting firm Celeres.

 

For the same period in 2006, just 11 percent of the 2006/07 crop had been sold.

 

"Last year we had soy prices at the Chicago Board of Trade around US$6 per bushel," Celeres analyst Anderson Galvao Gomes said. "Now prices for the March and May 2008 contracts are around US$9 per bushel...So the producers make use of that and advance sales of the new crop."

 

The old crop, from 2006/07, was 83 percent sold, two percentage points over the Aug. 17 figure, Celeres said Monday (August 27). In the same period last year, the 2005/06 old crop was 86 percent sold.

 

Sale numbers as of August 24 for the 2007/08 crop advanced in the three biggest soy-producing states.

 

In Mato Grosso, Brazil's No. 1 soy-producing state, 29 percent of the new crop has been sold, up four percentage points from last week's 25 percent.

 

Parana, No. 2 in the national ranking, has only 7 percent of its new crop sold, the same as last week.

 

Rio Grande do Sul, which is ranked No. 3, has sold 4 percent, up from 3 percent last week.

 

Mato Grosso also leads numbers for the old crop, with 92 percent already sold, one percentage point over last week's numbers. Parana has 68 percent sold, or three percentage points more than last week.

 

Rio Grande do Sul has sold 71 percent of the old crop, up from 68 percent last week.

 

Brazil is the world's No. 2 soy producer behind the US.