August 10, 2011

Brazilian grains, oilseeds harvest to hit record

Brazil's 2010/11 grains and oilseeds harvest will achieve an unprecedented record of 161.5 million tonnes, according to the Brazilian Commodities Corp., or Conab, on Tuesday (Aug 9).

In its eleventh survey for the 2010/11 crop, Conab forecasts an increase of 8.2% over the 2009/10 crop of 149.2 million tonnes, representing an additional 12.3 million tonnes.

This, however, means a reduction compared to a month ago, when Conab had estimated the grains harvest to expand 8.6% in 2010/11 to 162 million tonnes.

Planted area is now estimated at 49.6 million hectares, representing a gain of 4.7% or 2.2 million hectares, versus the previous harvest.

The rise in production is attributed to larger areas of cultivation for cotton (+67.5%), beans (+7.5%), soy (+3%), and rice (+4.1%), and favourable weather conditions.

Soy production is estimated at 75.3 million tonnes, up 9.6% from 2009/10. The corn crop is estimated at 56.34 million tonnes, up slightly from 56 million tonnes in the previous harvest.

The wheat crop, on the other hand, is expected to shrink 10.2% to 5.24 million tonnes.

Conab's survey was conducted from July 18-22 in Brazil's South, Southeast, Center-West and Northeast, as well as in part of the North region