Brazil’s 2018/2019 grain harvest should close with a record of 242.1m tons

The 2018/2019 grain harvest in Brazil should end with a record production of 242.1m tons of grain. According to an estimate released on Tuesday (09/10) by the Food Supply and Statistics Agency (Conab), growth will be 6.4% higher than last season, driven by cotton and corn crops. The previous record was recorded in the 2016/2017 period at 237.6m tons.

In the case of cotton, the survey conducted by the state-owned company revealed a 35.9% growth in production, with an estimated volume of 4.1m tons of cottonseed and 2.7m tons of cotton lint. Among the reasons are the exchange rate, the evolution of prices and other factors, which led the producers to expand the planted area, mainly in the states of Bahia and Mato Grosso. As a result, the forecast for cotton lint exports should also exceed last year’s by more than 50%, reaching for the first time the 1.5m tons mark.

Regarding corn, the total harvest reaches almost 100m tons. There was an increase in the second harvest, with growth of 36.9% and a record production forecast of 73.8m tons, and a decrease in the first crop, with 26.2m tons, 2.3% lower than the previous one. In Conab’s supply and demand scenario, the product also shows a record export expectation of almost 35m tons.

Beans showed good results only in the second and third harvests, with an increase of 6.3% and 21.2% respectively. But it was not enough to guarantee an increase in the total number, which closed at 3% below the previous year, with about 3m tons in the three harvests. Regarding rice, the production of 10.4m tons is 13.4% lower than that obtained in 2017/18, due to the reduction in area and productivity that occurred in the main producing states.

Soybean also suffered a 3.6% reduction in production, reaching 115m tons. However, there was a 2.1% growth in the planting area. Although the harvest is almost over (only a few areas are left in the North and Northeast Region), and even with the decrease in percentage, it consolidates as the second largest soybean production in the Conab historical series.

According to Deputy Secretary of Agricultural Policy, Wilson Vaz, these results will benefit the marketing of products and positively influence the 2019/2020 crop:

“We also monitored rural credit performance in the first two months of the harvest and they are good, in line with what the minister set as a priority: priority for small and medium producers and investments in productive infrastructure. All this has been confirmed in the first two months with a substantial increase in credit to the average rural producer of 28% and 14% to the small producer,” he says.

Winter Harvest 2019

Wheat production is estimated at 5.4m tons, with an area of 2m hectares, which is 0.2% higher than in 2018. The other winter crops (oats, canola, rye, barley, and triticale) have a slight increase in cultivated area, from 546,500 hectares last season to 564,800 hectares.

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