Brazil's Mato Grosso state increased its estimates for the 2025-26 soybean crop production costs once again this month, based on higher fertilizer and seed costs.
Operational costs for the 2025-26 soybean crop — which include inputs, machinery and labor, among others — were estimated at R4,005/hectare ($656.90/ha) in December, according to the state's institute of agricultural economics Imea.
The outlook rose by 3.9pc from the R3,854/ha reported a month prior. Crop estimated costs are also higher than the 2024-25 crop's consolidated costs of R3,970/ha.
Estimated seed costs led the hikes, reaching R581/ha last month, 6.6pc above the R545/ha from November. But that is still below the R678/ha in the 2024-25 crop.
Fertilizers costs increased by 5.1pc to R1,841/ha in December, while pesticides costs rose by 2.1pc to R1,112/ha on the month.
Costs for fertilizers and pesticides finished the 2024-25 season at R1,720/ha and R1,163/ha, respectively.
Corn
Estimated costs for the 2024-25 corn crop using advanced technologies in Mato Grosso rose by almost 0.7pc to R3,236/ha last month and were almost in line with the R3,284/ha in the 2023-24 cycle.
Projections for fertilizer costs increased by 2.3pc to R1,342/ha in December, but remain below the R1,519/ha from the prior season.
The fertilizer hike more than offsets the downward revisions in estimates for seed and pesticides costs. Costs for seeds fell by 0.5pc to R763/ha, while pesticides dropped by 0.9pc to R736/ha. That compares with R751/ha and R733/ha in the 2023-24 season.
Cotton
Imea upped its projection for 2024-25 cotton production costs by 13pc to R10,822/ha in December, which surpasses last season's R9,802/ha.
Pesticide costs led the increase with a 15pc hike to R4,620/ha, up from R4,300/ha on the year. Fertilizer costs rose by 13pc to R4,002/ha, also above the R3,405/ha from the 2023-24 season.
The estimated seed costs increased by 1.6pc to R1,006/ha, below last cycle's R1,058/ha.
Estimated costs in December were calculated based on an average exchange rate of R5.9626/$1 for soybeans, R5.4686/$1 for corn and R6.0964/$1 for cotton.
