Agência Brasil*
Brasília – The 2007 Brazilian grain crop totalled 133 million tonnes, an amount 13.7% greater than obtained in 2006. The estimate was disclosed today (8th) by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Thus, the country hit a new record, surpassing its largest production to date: 123.6 million in 2003 (the survey started being conducted in 1972). The two main products, soy and maize, answered to 82% of production and had the greatest planted areas, at 20.6 million and 9.2 million hectares, respectively.
The manager in charge of the IBGE – Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production, Neuton Rocha, stated that the record breaking production was a consequence of high prices, especially for soybean, in the international market.
"There is a very high demand for food from countries such as China and India, which are consuming more. Furthermore, the United States are retaining maize for ethanol production, which favours Brazilian exports of the product," claimed Rocha.
Of the twenty-five products analysed, fifteen showed a positive variation in production estimates compared with the previous year.
Among those were cottonseed (33.7%), second crop shelled peanut (16%), potato (22,7%), sugarcane (13.2%), second crop grain maize (35.7%), soybean (11.1%), and wheat grain (62.3%).
Products that recorded negative variations were first crop shelled peanut (10.2%), rough rice (3.7%), oat (39.9%), third crop potato (12.8%), coffee bean (16.7%), second crop bean (23.0%), third crop bean (5.5%), castor bean (5.7%), grain sorghum (12.4%) and triticale grain (7%).
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
