Brazil's grain crop planted area to increase in 2011/12

The area planted for grain crops in Brazil is estimated at 52.29 million hectares in 2011/12 and is 4.8 per cent higher than the cultivated crop in 2010/11, 49.89 ha, according to a survey by Conab - the Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento.

This represents an increase of 2.40 million hectares.

Among the main summer crops, the first and second corn and soybean crops, show growth, especially for the corn second crop, which had an increase of 20.1 per cent or 1,181,500 hectares, followed by soybeans, with a rise of 3 4 per cent (817,100 hectares) and the first corn crop, with a rise of 8.4 per cent or 664.0000 tons.

The rice and bean crops have seen a reduction in area planted. For beans, this is because of the difficulties in marketing and depressed prices, and for rice it is the lack of water in reservoirs, increasing the cost of production and unattractive prices.

Production is estimated at 159.20 million tons, 2.2 per cent less than that obtained in 2010/11, when it reached 162.84 million tons. This represents a reduction of 3.63 million tons.

The largest reduction is was in soybean (9.72 million tons) and rice (1.95 million tons).

The decrease is mainly due to unfavorable weather conditions, especially in the period from 15 Novermber 2011 to 15 January 2012, which affected corn and soy, especially in southern states, part of Southeast and Southwest of Mato Grosso do Sul. For the second corn crop, the forecast is for growth of 35.1 per cent, equivalent to 7.54 million tons.