December 9, 2008
Brazil's 2009 grain harvest seen to drop on crisis
The world financial crisis is certain to pull down Brazil's grains in 2009 as it severely dents the country's agriculture sector, Mauro Andreazzi, Agriculture manager at the Brazilian Census Bureau (IBGE), said Monday (December 8).
The IBGE said Brazil's 2009 crop will drop 3.8 percent on the 2008 harvest, to 140.2 million tonnes from 145.6 million tonnes. Andreazzi said this partly results from scarcer credit, higher input costs and falling commodity prices.
Corn harvest, Andreazzi said, will be one of the hardest hit by the new economic situation, and is expected to fall 7.4 percent in the first 2009 crop compared to the same period of 2008.
