Rio de Janeiro – The Brazilian grain, leguminous and oleaginous plant crop should attain a volume of 158.8 million tonnes in 2011. According to the Systematic Agricultural Production Survey (LSPA) for July, issued this Tuesday (9th) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the result will be 6.2% higher than in 2010, when the crop volume was 149.6 million tonnes. The forecast, however, points to a crop 1.7% smaller than estimated a month earlier.
According to the survey, a total area of 48.9 million hectares should be harvested this year, representing a 4.9% increase over the harvested area in 2010 and a 0.3% reduction when compared with projections made in June.
Rice, maize and soy account for 90.5% of grain production and take up 82.3% of the area to be harvested, having increased by 1.6%, 4.2% and 3.3%, respectively, when compared with the previous year. Rice production should increase by 18.9% and soy production, by 9.2%. Maize production, on the other hand, should decline by 1.1%.
The IBGE projects an increase in production volume across all regions of Brazil in comparison with last year. The South Region is expected to produce a volume of 65.9 million tonnes; the Midwest Region should produce 55.5 million tonnes; the Southeast, 17.2 million; the Northeast, 15.8 million and the North, 4.3 million.
According to the estimates for 2011, Mato Grosso should be the leading grain producing state, retaining a share of 19.6% and surpassing Paraná (19.2%), whose bean, oat and wheat crops should lose quantity and quality due to drought in May, frost in June and excess rainfall in July.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
