January 7, 2004

 

 

Brazilian Soy Farmers Anticipate Another Bumper Year

 

Soy farmers from Brazil's main producing state of Mato Grosso are anticipating another year of bumper soybean harvest.

 

A few farms have started harvesting short-cycle beans from the 2003-04 crop in the central municipalities of Lucas do Rio Verde, Sorriso and Novo Mutum, and fieldwork should spread and pick up pace beginning next week, traders said.

 

With the wet, warm weather holding, bumper yields are expected.

 

"The early harvest registered yields of around 50 (60-kilogram) bags per hectare. The expectation is for a large crop," said Fernando Muraro, agricultural analyst at the local AgRural consultancy, adding that yields traditionally rise as the harvest progresses.

 

Mato Grosso will produce 15.65 million metric tons of soybeans in 2003-04 (October-September), some 27% of Brazil's total crop, according to latest Brazilian government estimate.

 

The government forecasts yields will rise marginally to 3,000 kilograms per hectare this year compared with 2,930 kg/hectare last year.

 

However, traders say yields could be even higher.

 

Last year's crop was spoiled by rain during the harvest and an attack by the devastating Asian rust fungus.

 

This year, there have been no weather problems so far and the outlook for the first half of January is positive.

 

According to the Global Weather Services, Brazil's center-south crop will see more rain in the next week, fostering the growth of the state's later maturing beans.

 

Meanwhile, stunned by the losses to the Asian rust fungus, farmers have been spraying fungicide at the first report of the yield cutting disease.

 

The increased care means the Asian rust fungus probably won't be as big a factor this year, said one trader at a large multinational trading firm.

 

Brazil is set to take over from the U.S. as the world's largest soybean exporter in 2004.

 

And with international quotes hitting historic highs following the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in Washington state, farmers expect another year of high profits.

 

"We have had some isolated problems with caterpillars and Asian rust, but the outlook is excellent," said Alcindo Ruggieri, president of the farmers' association in Nova Mutum, in central Mato Grosso.