Brazil’s Conab Raises Grain Output Forecast on Bigger Corn Crop

By Ana Mano

SAO PAULO, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Crop agency Conab on Thursday raised its forecast for total Brazilian grain supplies in the 2024/25 season to 325.71 million metric tons from 322.25 million tons based on expectations of a bigger corn crop.

Conab said Brazil’s total corn crop will reach 122.01 million tons, up almost 2.5 million tons from a January forecast. The revision reflected mainly better prospects for the country’s second corn crop, which is planted after soybeans are harvested in the same areas and represents about three quarters of supplies in a given year.

To date, conditions for planting of Brazil’s second corn crop are favourable, but February “will be a decisive” month for the sowing within the ideal climate window, Conab said.

Second corn sowing reached 5.3% of the expected planted area in the country, way below the 19.3% at this time last year, Conab said.

Overall, the agency expects Brazilian farmers to plant 16.8 million hectares (41.513 million acres) with second corn this year, an area 2.4% larger than last season’s.

Conab slightly lowered Brazil’s soybean supply forecast to 166.01 million tons in the same report, citing “irreversible crop losses” in the south of the country caused by dry weather.

“Soybean cultivation has faced serious difficulties due to drought,” Conab said referring to Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, one of the country’s biggest suppliers.

Conab said some places there have benefited from occasional rains while in others rains have been scarce or irregular, damaging plants. The same goes for Mato Grosso do Sul state, according to Conab.

(Reporting by Ana ManoEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Susan Fenton)