Brazil’s Conab revises corn forecast down 5%, soybean up 1%

Brazil’s food statistics agency Conab on Thursday nudged up its forecast of the nation’s soybean harvest 1% to 111.6 million mt while cutting is expectation on corn output almost 5% to 88 million mt.

The move upwards on soybeans, which the trade expected to be between 1-5%, was attributed to improving yields of 3.19 mt per hectare based on a crop survey carried out two weeks ago.

However, Conab said yields would fall short of the 3.36 mt per hectare a year earlier.

In terms of corn, the trade was looking for a downward revision towards 86.4-91.2 million mt.

Conab said it expected the first crop to reach 24.7 million mt, while the second harvest at 63.3 million mt.

The figures are closely watched by the global agriculture industry an come out ahead of the monthly USDA supply and demand forecast at 1700 London time.