Brazil starts soybean, summer corn planting: Conab

Brazil's soybean crop planting started early this year and reached 0.2% in the week ending September 17, while the sowing pace was faster for the summer corn crop, the country's food agency Conab said late Monday.

The agency will announce its first estimates for the 2023/24 Brazilian crop later Tuesday.

In the state of Paraná, 1% of the projected soybean area has been planted, while in Mato Grosso the completion rate reached 0.3% of the area.

Brazil had not started sowing yet a year ago and fieldwork began early at the request of cotton producers who sow soybeans as a first crop.  

The 2023/24 summer corn crop planting also started and reached 15% of the projected area by September 17.

In Rio Grande do Sul, the completion rate reached 45% and in Paraná, 42%.

2022/23 crop

Brazil’s second corn crop safrinha harvest reached 95.7% of the 17.2 million ha projected area, a 2.6 percentage point weekly advance.

The completion rate was 99.8% a year ago.

According to Conab, rains delayed harvest in Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul.

Brazil's wheat harvest reached 22.8% of the 3.4 million ha projected area, a 4.9 percentage point weekly gain, while the completion rate was 14.3% a year ago.

In Rio Grande do Sul, intense rains, atypical temperatures and a lack of luminosity are causing crop diseases.

Conab projects Brazil’s wheat production at a record 10.8 million mt in 2022/23, up 2.5% from the previous crop.