BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s next survey of the 2018/19 soy crop is likely to show a further decline in estimated output resulting from dry weather in January, Eduardo Sampaio, farm policy secretary at the Agriculture Ministry, said on Tuesday.
The current survey showed a drop of roughly 3.5 million tonnes in output, from a previous survey in January, to 115.3 million tonnes of soy for the crop year, according to figures released by agriculture statistics agency Conab on Tuesday.
But that survey was carried out before a period of dry weather in January had ended, Sampaio said after a press briefing on the figures.
“January continued to have drought; the next survey could be lower still,” said Sampaio. “Probably the estimate in the market is already a bit lower than this.”
The next crop estimate will be released in March. Weather has improved with the return of rains for at least a week in most growing regions including the center-west grain belt of Brazil, Sampaio said.
