MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil expects a record wheat crop, and considerable reduction of imports

Conab estimates that production should reach 6.8 million tons, 21.2% more than in the previous harvest.

Brazil's National Supply Company (Conab) said the current wheat crop (2019/20) has the potential to be a record. As a result, Brazilian cereal imports should fall. The agency believes that production should reach 6.8 million tons, 21.2% more than in the previous harvest.

Based on this information, Conab reduced its estimate of cereal imports from 7.3 million to 6.7 million tons for the season in a report released on Tuesday.

In a webinar promoted by the Brazilian Wheat Industry Association (Abratrigo), on August 7 Moinho Globo’s supply manager, Rui Santos, stated that Paraná will have a record harvest, surpassing the 2014 season, when 3.79 million tons were produced.

Officially, the Department of Rural Economy (Deral), of the Parana State Agriculture and Supply Secretariat, predicts 3.69 million tons, 72% above the 2.14 million produced last season which suffered from a dry climate.

In Rio Grande do Sul, production is expected to exceed 3 million tons according to Hamilton Jardim, president of the State Chamber of Winter Crops. This is because the manager believes that an area 930,000 hectares are dedicated to wheat, exceeding the area planted in the previous season by 22.2%. “The drought delayed planting at the beginning of the season, but losses have not yet been recorded,” he said.