April 27, 2006

 

Wheat planting intentions down in Brazil's Parana state

 

 

Planting intentions for the 2006/07 wheat crop have fallen again in Parana state, the No. 1 wheat producer in Brazil, to make room for more corn, the state Secretary of Agriculture said Wednesday.

 

April planting intentions will fall to 1 million hectares, said Dirlei Antonnesio Manfio, an agronomist at Parana Secretary of Agriculture. The official estimate for the month has not yet been released.

 

March planting intentions were for 1.03 million hectares of wheat, down from the 1.07 million hectares announced in the state's first official estimate in February.

 

"Farmers are opting to plant more corn in the winter and that is taking space of wheat," Manfio said. Parana farmers usually plant corn in the winter months, but did not do so last year because of crop losses in the summer due to drought. This year, corn has returned to the fields.

 

The National Commodities Supply Corp of the Federal Agriculture Ministry said in an April crop estimate that Parana would plant 1.3 million hectares, 5.5 percent less than was planted in 2005. Total state production was put at 2.8 million tonnes, 7.8 percent less than 2005.

 

Parana state wheat yield averages are between 41 and 42 60-kilogram bags per hectare.

 

Roughly 15 percent of the wheat crop has been planted, Manfio said. Harvest begins in August in some parts of the state and runs until December, with the bulk of the crop being harvested in September and October.

 

Parana is mostly self-sufficient in wheat, but millers in states outside of the southern wheat belt rely on imported wheat.

 

"The tendency is for Brazil to remain a net importer of wheat in the near future. We are trying to make better quality wheat because the prices are more favourable, but for now we will have to rely on Argentina for that," Manfio said.