Brazil on track for record grains, oilseeds production

Brazil's government raised its forecast for grains and oilseeds output in the current 2019-20 season, estimating record production of 246.6mn metric tonnes, 0.1pc higher on the November estimate and 1.9pc above the prior season's output.

Planted acreage is forecast to increase by 1.5pc to 64.2mn hectares (158mn acres) from a year earlier, Brazil's agricultural statistics agency (Conab) said today.

Soybean is still the main driver for the latest forecast, with its output pegged at 121.1mn t. That is up from 120.8mn t forecast last month and marks a 5.3pc increase from output in the 2018-19 season.

Despite some weather issues that delayed early planting between September-October, Conab remains optimistic about Brazilian oilseed production.

"Irregular rainfall at the beginning of the cycle, in central-west and southeast states, for example, has improved as of November, which has favored the planting," Conab said in its third estimate for the 2019-20 season.

Conab estimated that Brazil will produce 98.4mn t of corn this crop year, flat from last month´s estimate but a 1.6pc decrease from a year earlier. Still, this volume would be the second-largest ever registered.

Of the total, 70.9mn t would come from the season's second crop, the so-called safrinha, sowed after soybeans get removed from the fields and harvested in the middle of the year.

Cotton lint output is estimated at 2.7mn t, little changed from the November estimate and from last year's output volumes.

Export estimates were little changed. Conab still sees shipments of 72mn t of soybeans in 2019-20, 34mn t of corn and 2mn t of cotton lint.

By Jose Roberto Gomes