Rio de Janeiro – Production of grain, leguminous and oleaginous plants in Brazil in 2009 should be 8.1% lower than the record-breaking crop of 2008, and should total 134.1 million tonnes, i.e., 8,500 tonnes less than the projection disclosed in September. Due to the weather conditions that affected the South Region, the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) presented its tenth revised estimate today (5th).
According to the Systematic Agricultural Production Survey, the reduced harvest reflects the impact of rains on winter crops, in particular the decrease in production of wheat, which is the main crop of the season, in the states of Santa Catarina and Paraná. Due to these weather issues, the state of Mato Grosso is going to overtake Paraná this year to become the leading national producer of grain.
“We have winter crops underway right now, and this was a rainy winter in the South Region. Excessive rains lead to an increase in the rate of disease and excessive moisture in the grain, resulting in reduced product quality,” explained the research coordinator at IBGE, Mauro Andreazzi, who underscores that the 2008 crop was a record high and totalled 146 million tonnes, a figure that is “difficult to attain.”
The National Food Supply Company (Conab) also disclosed today, in the Brazilian capital Brasília, the projection for the 2009 wheat crop, showing that the output of the grain, depending on imports, should drop 14.3% in the 2009/2010 crop compared with the previous result.
The IBGE also announced its projections for the country’s three main cultures, which account for 81.4% of planted area. The forecasted variations from 2008 to 2009, according to the institute’s estimates, are of growth of 2.2% in the area planted with soy, reduction of 4.6% in for maize, and growth of 1% for rice. As for harvest size, only rice should see an increase, of 4.2%. The estimates for soy and maize are of reduction of 4.8% and 13.3%, respectively.
With regard to the harvest area, from 2008 to 2009, the projection is that there should be a decrease of 0.2%, totalling 47.2 million hectares. Thus, the grain crop will be distributed throughout the following regions: South, with 52.6 million tonnes, Midwest, with 48.9 million, Southeast, with 17.2 million tonnes; Northeast, with 11.7 million tonnes, and North, with 3.8 million.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
