MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record soybean crop in Paraguay: 6.8 million tons

Paraguay's soy bean 2007/08 crop is expected to reach a record 6.8 million tons helped by good yields and an expansion of the area planted according to the country's soy exporters chamber.

Paraguay is the world's fourth exporter of soy and this season's crop involved 2.6 million hectares with an average yield of 2.600 kilos per hectare, slightly less than the 2.700 of the previous crop. "Our estimates are confirming our original forecast of 6.8 million tons" said Luis Cubilla advisor to Paraguay's Chamber of Cereal and Oil seed exporters, Capeco. "It was a good season. Yields are higher than last year but not as high as at the beginning of the crop because the late plantations suffered the lack of sufficient rainfall", explained Cubilla. At the beginning of the crop yields were in the range of 3.000 kilos per hectare but a water deficit in March hit productivity of the late planting. In the previous harvest, 2006/07 Paraguay's production was 5.8 million tons of soy with an average yield of 2.4 kilos per hectare and the total area, 2.4 million hectares. Although the Paraguayan government has not released official reports, sources from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock said that yields should be in the range of 2.550 and 2.600 kilos per hectare. Soy is the main export of Paraguay which sells overseas 70% of its production as beans and the rest as oil and soy meal. Paraguay's Central bank figures indicate that soy exports in the first quarter of this year generated 300 million US dollars, up 80% from the same period a year ago.