January 15, 2009

Brazil's southern state of Parana has revised its 2008-09 grain crop estimate to 16.5 million tonnes, a technical specialist at Parana state's agricultural secretariat, or Seab, said Wednesday (January 14).

      

Parana's grain crop, which includes soy, corn and beans (feijao), was revised 23.4 percent down from its initial estimate of 21.5 million tonnes, according to Seab.

 

"These losses aren't recoverable," technical specialist Otmar Hubner told Dow Jones Newswires.

 

The losses were mainly due to the drought that has impacted many farming regions in Parana since November. Rains recently returned to Parana, however, and are giving the dry farm land necessary moistness.

 

As a result, Seab doesn't expect any further losses to Parana's 2008-09 crop due to the dry weather, Hubner said.

 

Despite the rain, Seab said Parana, Brazil's No. 2 soy-producing state, should produce 10.2 million tonnes of soy in 2008-09, down from its initial estimate of 12.8 million tonnes.

 

Parana's farmers planted their soy in December, which are now in the development stage.

 

The worst soy losses have occurred in Parana's regions of Toledo (29 percent), Cornelio Procopio (28 percent), Cascavel (25 percent), Campo Mourao (21 percent), Umuarama (20 percent) and Apucarana (20 percent), Seab said.

 

Seab also estimated that Parana's s first corn crop should drop to 5.9 million tonnes from its initial estimate of 8.7 million tonnes. Brazil has two corn crops a year.

 

The largest expected loss for any single crop is for beans (feijao), plummeting 38.6 percent to 375,987 tonnes from its initial estimate, Seab said.

 

Parana is one of Brazil's main agricultural states. Brazil is the world's second-largest soy-producing country after the US.