AgRural trims forecast for Brazil’s 2024/25 soy crop

Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s 2024/25 soybean crop is expected to total 171 million metric tons, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, lowering its forecast by 500,000 tons due to lower yields in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul.

The “excellent crop” in Brazil’s top-grain producing state Mato Grosso helped offset the reduced yields in other areas, AgRural said, though cautioning that grain quality there may drop if excessive rainfall is registered in February.

Brazilian farmers had harvested 3.9 per cent of their soybean crop by last Thursday, the consultancy added, the lowest level for this time of year since the 2020/21 cycle as adverse weather conditions have been affecting work in the fields.

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Lower rainfall volume in Mato Grosso helped producers make some progress last week but harvesting is still delayed in the state, AgRural said. At the same time last year, 10.8 per cent of Brazil’s soy crop had been reaped.

The delayed soy harvest has also impacted sowing of Brazil’s second corn crop, which represents about 75 per cent of the national production each year and is planted after soybeans are harvested on the same fields.

Second corn planting in Brazil’s key center-south region had reached 2.2 per cent of the expected area by Thursday, AgRural said, up from 0.3 per cent in the prior week but well below the 11.4 per cent seen a year earlier.

— Reporting by Gabriel Araujo