Harvest to surpass 140 million tons
Folha de S. Paulo - 04/09/2008
The Ministry of Agriculture raised the estimate of the 2007/08 harvest of grains from 139.3 million tons to 140.7 million tons due to the expectation of a bigger harvest of corn and soybean. The record forecast points to an increase of 9 million tons compared to the previous harvest. The survey indicates that the country is to harvest 59.9 million tons of soybean, 56.2 million tons of corn, and 11.9 million tons of rice. For beans, which was one of the inflation villains in 2007, a harvest of 3.4 million tons is expected, with a 2.9% high. Conab's president, Wagner Rossi, said that "this year food prices will not be the good guys, but they will not be the bad guys either". Despite the foreign crisis and the higher volatility setting for the quotations of commodities, the Ministry of Agriculture evaluates that the international prices of grains should remain in high levels. In 2007, the appreciation of commodities allowed the sector to have a 7.89% expansion. In Rio, IBGE's Agriculture coordinator, Flávio Bolliger, also pointed out that the country must keep the condition of corn exporter, "even with outflow capacity, which was a challenge".