Conab lifts Brazil’s corn crop to 88.6 m mt, soy to 115 m mt

Brazil’s food statistics agency Conab increased its forecast for both the soy and corn crop in its monthly report Tuesday as it increased yields and acreage in its April update.

The country's first corn crop, now nearing its end, is estimated at 25.6 million mt, up nearly 0.5 million mt from Conab’s March view, while it sees the second safrinha corn crop at 63 million mt, 0.9 million mt higher on the month.

It arrived at this forecast by lifting total acreage by 1.4% to 16.61 million hectares and marginally increasing average yields to 5.34 kg/ha.

However, the total 2017/18 corn crop remains 16% lower on the year, with average yields down 4% and total acreage down over 6% compared to last year.

The largest decrease in yields was noted for the first crop, dropping 8.9% on the year, while the second crop saw a decline of 1.9%.

Soy production at all-time high

Conab expects Brazil’s soy crop to hit a new high of 114.96 million mt, breaking last year’s record of 114 million mt, as acreage increases 3.5% on the year, while yields remain “normal in most states”, up 0.8% on average.

That compares to the agency’s March view of 113 million mt.

Brazil’s 2017/18 soy planted area forecast was incrementally moved up from last month to 35.09 million ha, with average yields gaining 1.6% on the month to 3.28 kg/ha.