Adverse climate conditions to hit Paraguay’s grain, chamber says

Adverse weather conditions will have a negative impact in Paraguay’s crops this season, Sonia Tomassone, a foreign trade consultant with Paraguay’s grain chamber Capeco, told Agricensus.

According to Capeco, the country’s soybean production for the 2017/18 crop season will total 9.5 millon mt, down compared to 10.3 million mt in the 2016/17 season.

The chamber said that the planted area is expected to be 3.4 million hectares this crop season, slightly above the 3.38 millon hectares in the previous season, with the yield falling to just under 2.8 mt/ha, down from 3.05 mt/ha the year before.

In the corn segment, Capeco expects total production to reach 4.1 million mt in the current crop cycle, down compared to 4.5 million mt in the 2016/17 crop.

The total area planted is expected to reach 750,000 hectares, down compared to 1 million hectares the previous crop cycle, with the yield totaling 5.5 mtmt/ha, up compared to 4.5 mt/ha the previous year.

Meanwhile, the country’s wheat production is forecasted to reach 700,000 mt in the current crop season with a total area planted of 428,648 hectares and a yield of 1.6 mt/ha.

In the 2016/17 cycle, wheat production totaled 1.28 million mt, with a total area planted of 493,924 hectares and a yield of 2.6 mt/ha.

Tomassone said that the country will probably export a maximum of only 100,000 mt of wheat to the Brazilian market this crop season.

"The rest of wheat production will be oriented to the domestic market," she said.

Corn exports totaled 1.94 million mt while wheat shipments amounted to 581,377 mt, according to the latest available statistics from Capeco.

Paraguay is the world's fourth largest soybean exporter. It is expected to export 6 million mt of soybean this crop season, according to the USDA.

Tomassone also said that corn exports to Brazil had declined due to the devaluation of the Brazilian currency and strike carried out by workers of Brazilian customs Receita Federal (RF).