News

CONAB lowers Brazil second crop corn guess slightly

Brazil’s equivalent of the USDA has lowered its corn outlook, but still expects production to be well above a year ago.

CONAB pegs the second crop at a record 87.407 million tons, down 1.041 million from the July update, but still up 26.665 million tons from the heavily drought impacted 2021 crop. Brazil’s second corn crop is the largest of the three and the source of most of their exports and the current harvest is about 80% complete.

CONAB raised its first crop guess slightly to 2979 million tons and while there was a month-to-month reduction for Brazil’s third corn crop, now seen at 2.306 million tons, it’s still expected to be larger than last year.

Brazil’s soybean crop totaled 124.048 million tons, unchanged on the month and down 14.105 million tons on the year following isolated drought conditions.

CONAB also cut expectations for cotton and rice production, citing weather.

Brazil is a major U.S. export competitor, especially for soybean business with China.