January 12, 2011

Oil World sees Brazil's 2011 soy crop developing well

Brazil's 2011 soy crop outlook remains positive amid concerns about weather damage to crops in other South American countries, oilseeds analysts Oil World forecasted Tuesday (Jan 11).

Oil World has slightly raised its forecast of Brazil's 2011 soy crop to 67.5 million tonnes up from 67.3 million tonnes forecast in December and against 68.7 million tonnes harvested in 2010.

But this is still below the Brazilian government crop estimate on January 6 of 68.55 million tonnes. Harvesting has now begun.

Concerns about damage from the La Nina weather pattern have caused concern about soy crop damage in other countries, especially Argentina, and have supported global soy prices in recent weeks.

"Soybean crop prospects (in Brazil) are still largely favourable. Farmers boosted sowings to a record of around 24 million hectares, up 0.5 million hectares from a year earlier," Oil World said.

Recent rainfall had been better in most Brazilian soy regions compared to other South American producers, it said.

But Oil World said it was still keeping its forecast lower than the Brazilian government estimate as the analyst is concerned about dryness in the key soy producing region of Mato Grosso.