Brazil expecting near-record harvest

Rio de Janeiro, March 10 (IANS/EFE) Brazil will bring in a grain harvest of 145.1 million tonnes this year, a volume very close to the record 145.8 million tonnes gathered in 2008, authorities said.

The production of grains, legumes and oil-plants in 2010 will be 8.5 percent greater than in 2009, according to forecasts by the IBGE statistics agency on the basis of February field data.

The latest estimate is an improvement on the previous one, which was based on data gathered in January, and according to which production for this year would reach 143.4 million tonnes.

Land under cultivation will grow by 1.5 percent compared with 2009, eventually reaching 47.9 million hectares, the IBGE said Monday.

Crop growth this year will be achieved mainly by the 17.4 percent boost to soybean production and a 2.6 percent increase in corn.

Soybean is the chief grain produced in Brazil, accounting for just under half of the total grain output.

Soy, corn and rice, the three main crops, occupy 81.5 percent of all the cropland in the country.

Soybean production this year will reach 66.9 million tonnes, thanks to improved climatic conditions and the increase in the area under cultivation, while 52.4 million tonnes of corn will be produced.

Brazil, the world's top grower and exporter of coffee, will produce 2.8 million tonnes of the bean this year, 14.4 percent more by volume than last year.