Brazil ’Bumper’ Soy Outlook to Be Raised on Rain, Official Says

Soybean farmers in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer after the U.S., may harvest about 5 percent more than previously forecast in the current season as rain boosts yields, a government official said.

“Growers are going to harvest a bumper crop,” Nilva Claro, an analyst at the Agriculture Ministry’s Conab crop- forecasting agency, said yesterday in a telephone interview from Brasilia. Weather conditions are “very good,” she said.

Brazilian soybean growers are forecast to harvest a record 64.6 million tons of the oilseed this year, up from 57.2 million in 2009, Conab said Dec. 8. Conab releases a new estimate for the crop on Jan. 7.

Yields will also rise because farmers boosted fertilizer use after the Brazilian real’s appreciation last year made imports of the chemicals cheaper in local-currency terms, Claro said. The real’s 33 percent jump in 2009 was the best performance against the dollar of 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg