November 30, 2006

Brazil puts Parana's 2006/07 soy crop at 11.8 million tonnes

Brazil's second biggest soy producing state, Parana, should harvest 11.8 million tonnes of soybeans from the 2006/07 crop, the state's Secretary of Agriculture said Wednesday (Nov 29).

The number is in line with an estimate made by the National Commodities Supply Corp (Conab) made earlier this month. Conab put the total between 11.4 million and 11.6 million tonnes.

If the estimate proves correct at harvest, the state would have harvested 27 percent more than was harvested in the 2005/06 season, when dry weather in the north and north-west destroyed part of the state's crop, and low investments in herbicides cut into productivity.

Most of the northern part of the state reduced planted area, with the north-east of Parana cutting 21 percent out of the 217,328 hectares planted in 2005/06, according to the state's Secretary of Agriculture. Other regions increased planted area, which will give Parana roughly 1 percent more soy hectares than the 2005/06 season, or a total of 3.9 million hectares.

Yields are put at 3,000 kilogrammes per hectare, compared with 2,390 kg in 2005/06 due to the larger quantity of genetically modified soybeans being planted in the 2006/07 crop. GMO soybeans control weeds that compete with soy plants for vital soil and sun nutrients.

Roughly 88 percent of the crop has been planted as of Nov 20, the government said.

Brazil should harvest between 53.9 million and 55.2 million tonnes of soybeans in 2006/07, according to Conab.