Brazil Corn Production Estimate Cut on Drought, AgRural Says
January 27, 2012, 12:24 PM ESTBy Lucia Kassai
(Updates with prices in last paragraph.)
Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Corn growers in Brazil, the world’s third-largest producer, will harvest less than previously forecast after a 13-week drought cut output in the country’s top growing region.
Brazil’s 2011-2012 summer corn forecast was lowered 4.3 percent to 34.88 million metric tons from a December estimate of 36.44 million tons, crop-forecasting firm AgRural Commodities Agricolas said today in an e-mail. That compares with last year’s 35.93 million tons.
Output in the Brazilian southern states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana was reduced 13 percent to 12.86 million tons from a previous estimate as rain didn’t help recover losses from prolonged dry weather, Curitiba, Brazil- based AgRural said.
Brazil’s South is the country’s main producing region for summer corn, which accounts for about 62 percent of the country’s output. Brazil, South America’s largest economy is expected to produce 59.2 million tons of corn, the Agriculture Ministry said Jan. 10.
The summer crop harvest runs from January through May. The U.S. and Argentina are the first and second-largest exporters of corn.
Corn for March delivery advanced 0.3 percent to $6.3650 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 9:41 a.m.
--Editors: Robin Saponar, Jasmina Kelemen
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucia Kassai in Sao Paulo at lkassai@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net
