MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's overall crop expected to reach 258,9 million tons

The previous record had been in 2020 when Brazil produced 255.4 million tons of cereals, pulses and oilseeds.

IBGE, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics cut the country's cereals, pulses, and oilseeds output estimate. According to the Statistics of Agricultural Production, conducted in March, Brazil will harvest an output of 258.9 million tons in 2022, 1% below (2.7 million tons less) than anticipated in February.

According to the IBGE, despite the month-to-month reduction, Brazil will still have a record harvest this year, with overall production 2.3% higher (or 5.7 million tons more) than in 2021.

The previous record had been in 2020 when Brazil produced 255.4 million tons of cereals, pulses and oilseeds.

The reduction in the forecast from February to March was driven by drops among soybeans (-5.6%), the first corn crop (-3.8%), grapes (-9.5%) and tomatoes (-1.9%).

IBGE also estimated growth for corn’s second crop (4.9%), herbaceous cotton (3.7%), beans (3%), oats (3.3%), sorghum (0. 5%) and wheat (9.6%). Rice had a slight variation of -0.1%.

According to the March survey, the total area to be harvested in 2022 is expected to reach 71.8 million hectares, 0.8% higher than forecast in February and 4.7% higher than last year.

In related news data released this week by the National Association of Cereal Exporters (Anec) predicted that Brazil is expected to export 112,152 tons of wheat throughout April.

Brazil did not carry out wheat exports in April last year. However, cereal shipments totaled 508,164 thousand tons in March 2022 and are expected to total a record 2.242 million tons in 2022.

According to Anec, during the week from March 27 to April 2, Brazil exported 27,000 tons. Approximately 60,152 thousand tons are expected to be shipped by April 9.