Brasília – Brazil is expected to harvest 162.6 million tonnes of grain in the 2011-2012 crop. The estimate is included in the tenth crop survey issued this Thursday (5th) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply and by the National Supply Company (Conab, in the Portuguese acronym). The figure is 0.1% lower than the 162.8 million tonnes of the 2010-2011 crop.
Nonetheless, the Conab director Sílvio Porto regards the result as positive, because the previous crop was an all-time high. Despite the decline in overall grain production, the survey pointed to a 60.9% increase in second-crop maize, which reached 34.57 million tonnes. The volume is 13.08 million tonnes greater than in the preceding harvest, which amounted to 21.48 million tonnes.
According to the survey, the increase in maize production was a result of favourable conditions to the culture in top-producing areas.
This Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) has also disclosed a crop survey. According to the projection, 160.7 million tonnes of grain, leguminous plants and oleaginous plants will be harvested, up 0.4% from last year (160.1 million tonnes).
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
